Reform UK vows to scrap PIP under welfare reforms

Reform UK has set out welfare reform plans that would abolish Personal Independence Payments and the health element of Universal Credit for working-age adults.

The proposals aim to cut £50 billion from the welfare bill, with an estimated 2.89 million people seeing their disability benefits modified or withdrawn.

Under the plan, cash payments for low-level conditions would be replaced by locally-administered disability support accounts, reserving direct allowances for the gravely ill.

Employers could be mandated to fund return-to-work cover insurance for the first two years an employee is signed off sick.

Labour described the plans as fantasy economics that shift costs onto employers, while the Conservatives dismissed them as a distraction from investigations into Nigel Farage.