18/08/2026
Welfare is out of control. Reform UK will deliver the most radical shake-up of welfare in a generation, saving the taxpayer £50 billion. 👇
The average family is spending over £3k a year on other people’s health and disability benefits - that’s around £100bn overall. Mental health claims have tripled in the last 20 years. One in ten working-age people - that’s 5 million people - are on PIP. A quarter of a million of those are foreign nationals. Over a million foreign nationals claim Universal Credit.
Reform will change all this, starting with reductions in the number of people claiming benefits in the first place. We will restrict benefits to British nationals only, saving £21 billion. If someone has been here a long time and feels they have made a contribution, they should follow through and become a citizen. Pension entitlements, plus Armed Forces benefits, remain for non-nationals who have earned them. (Yes, this will require a revision of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, but as it’s a reciprocal deal - European states will cease paying British nationals’ benefits too - it should not be contentious).
And we will stop people going onto welfare after just 6 months of Statutory Sick Pay. We will introduce Return to Work Cover, i.e. compulsory unemployment insurance by employers for up to two years, paid at the same rate as SSP. The plan will be made cost-neutral for businesses by a cut (we estimate around 2p) in Employer NICs. This system, based on the Dutch model, will keep employers connected to and responsible for their colleague who has fallen ill. They and the insurer will have an incentive to help them get back to work as soon as possible. And so the system will reduce demand on the welfare state. Holland saw a 40% reduction in benefit claims after introducing their model.
If a claimant is still unable to work after two years, or they are unemployed when they claim, they will enter a new, combined assessment that replaces the separate assessments for UC Health and PIP claims. This will be a comprehensive, face to face consultation which will determine a) whether the claimant needs the income support provided by the new Health Security Allowance; b) whether he or she has additional costs in consequence of their disability, which will be met via the new Disability Support Account; and c) what work expectations should be applied for people receiving UC.
For severe and enduring cases the Health Security Allowance (HSA) builds on and enhances both PIP and UC Health. It provides an additional income-replacement benefit in the form of cash payments to be spent by the claimant as they see fit, at the same rate as those benefits combined - i.e. £430 a month, on top of the standard UC benefit plus housing, child, carer or other UC elements. There is no work requirement for people on HSA.
People with serious physical conditions will have greater security of income than they do currently, as they will not be reassessed for HSA for at least three years. People facing more urgent reassessment will include those with mental health conditions and mild physiological conditions.
The Disability Support Account is a new system designed to meet the needs of people with additional costs in consequence of a disability. It will be administered by local authorities, who will approve payments rather than simply awarding cash to claimants. It can be claimed by people on HSA or not, and in work or not.
Claims for disability benefits for children - Child Disability Living Allowance - have doubled in the last 10 years. This trajectory is unsustainable. Reform will apply a similar approach to assessment for new child claimants; existing child claimants will experience no change.
All in all, these reforms will save over £50 billion a year. It is the biggest and most comprehensive reform package announced for welfare since at least the introduction of UC fifteen years ago, and goes further in its ambition for taxpayers and for claimants. Reform UK is prepared to do what other parties aren’t - and yes, we believe our core supporters, as well as wavering voters, will be attracted by a plan that is brave, worked-through, and fair.
https://www.reformparty.uk/view-pdf/making-welfare-work
