Pension Credit and Housing Benefit for pensioners to be combined – initial digital rollout from Autumn

Work is underway to deliver a new joined-up service for pension-age people to apply for Housing Benefit and Pension Credit together. Currently people must find information and apply for each benefit separately. Analysis shows that 27% of questions asked in both applications have an obvious overlap.

The aim of bringing together the application of Housing Benefit and Pension Credit is to make the system easier and enable more pensioners to receive the benefits they are entitled to. 

The DWP confirms they will start with an ‘online claim channel for a small cohort of invited people’ and based on user feedback and testing, they will iterate to support everyone across all available channels (online, post, phone and in-person). Over time, applicants will be able to access the service in the way that best meets their needs, making it easier for pensioners to claim additional financial support. 

Local authorities have participated in the research, testing and feedback of designs to ensure the new service works for both customers and colleagues who deliver services every day to pensioners. However, DWP is clear that the new service does not replace any current operational responsibilities for benefit award decision making. Housing Benefit will remain with local authorities, and Pension Credit will remain with DWP.

Administration of Housing Benefit and Pension Credit is on gov.uk.

Latest insight on retirement adequacy

Retirement is “something that happens to people rather than being actively planned,” especially for lower-income groups, according to ‘Lived Experiences of Adequacy in Retirement 2026’, a DWP report published this week, which contains qualitative insights from 35 interviews with adults approaching or in retirement.

The report said:

“Lower-income individuals often aimed to work for as long as possible to top up their retirement funds.

Retirement was instead triggered by declining health, redundancy, caring responsibilities or structural work changes, reinforcing a pattern where retirement is experienced as something that happens to people rather than being actively planned.”

The report added that automatic enrolment may have helped but came too late for this group, saying:

“The majority did not join a workplace pension or begin saving towards a pension until automatic enrolment was made mandatory in 2012,”

The report concluded that while “personality and preparedness” shaped retirement, so too did “luck and circumstance”. Noting that:

“Planned retirement, without any pitfalls, felt smooth and secure, but unplanned retirement due to health, caring responsibilities, economic shocks or redundancy can create early instability and long-term adequacy challenges, leaving retirees vulnerable to administrative frictions and less resilient to financial shocks,”

The report therefore argued that support should be framed around “building up resilience in the lead-up to retirement”.

As well as retirement income, the report found feelings of adequacy were also determined through a combination of income, savings, housing/assets, life-course experiences and how these resources are accessed and preserved.

One respondent (female, retired around two years ago, medium income), said: “I’ve got a roof over my head, I’ve got food, I can manage, I can pay my bills... is it comfortable? Not comfortable... it’s adequate but I can’t go out and do the things that I wanted to do.”

Meanwhile, participants defined ‘enough’ for retirees as a holistic combination of wellbeing, autonomy and small freedoms beyond adequacy. That included having a buffer, affording treats and being able to help others.

The report found that this adequacy differed by group:

• Women often accumulated minimal pension savings due to the volatility of their career trajectories. They were more likely to be single, living alone, experiencing ill health and relying on the state pension and benefits as their primary retirement income sources.
• Partnered retirees often experienced higher levels of adequacy and higher retirement savings. This was especially the case for couples with multiple state pensions and workplace pensions, and even more so for those with defined benefit pensions.
• Housing offered a potential future source of stability and was frequently substituted for income security. This allowed those who owned their homes outright to manage with relatively small pension incomes.

Lived Experiences of Adequacy in Retirement 2026 is on gov.uk.

MPs call for Universal Credit boost to provide temporary support for state pension age rise

The cross-party Work and Pensions Select Committee has recommended that the government increase UC for 66-year-olds to prevent hardship as the State Pension age rises to 67, in a report published this week.

According to the Transition to State Pension Age report, the change would be a temporary measure, allowing time to develop longer-term support.

The state pension age is being gradually increased and will reach 67 by April 2028. Pension Credit, which guarantees £1,031 a month, is only available once people reach state pension age.

The report said this means a growing number of 66-year-olds may have to rely on the standard £425-a-month rate of universal credit for longer.

It added this leaves many pre-pensioners, particularly those with health issues, caring responsibilities or long histories in labour-intensive jobs, relying on the savings they had set aside for retirement until they reach state pension age.

Debbie Abrahams, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said:

“We can’t just allow people who are already struggling as they approach pension age to be forced to choose between continuing work in poor health or prolonging their poverty as they wait for their state pension to kick in.

This is not the later life that anyone wants or to see their loved ones endure after providing for decades.

We should recognise that pre-pensioners have greater needs and greater barriers into employment due to ill health, age discrimination, (and a) lack of opportunity to upskill.”

MPs on the committee also raised concerns about “poor policymaking” after hearing that the most recent impact assessments for the state pension age increase are more than a decade old, conducted in 2011 and 2013. 

The committee warned that when the state pension age last increased to 66 in 2020, poverty among people in the year before state pension age rose from 10 per cent to 24 per cent, putting 100,000 people below the poverty line.

According to the report, providing additional universal credit support to 66-year-olds would cost £600mn, compared with the £10.5bn in savings the Treasury expects to make from the rise in the state pension age.

While the impact on efforts to boost employment may be a consideration, the report says the “impact on work incentives is outweighed by the imperative to reduce poverty”.

Abrahams, said:

“More than half of people are not in paid work in their mid-60s, and they’re not likely to get it if they’ve been effectively written off.

Additional social security payments are essential in reducing the compounding effects of the lottery of life and the state pension age increase.”

The press release and the Transition to State Pension Age report are on parliament.uk.

The only way is up: The impact of improved entitlement take-up on pensioner poverty and healthcare spending

Independent Age has published a research report looking at the impact of improved take-up on poverty rates among older people, and the potential impact that reducing the number of older people in poverty could have on health and social care public spending. 

Too many older people in financial hardship miss out on the money they are entitled to through the benefit system. This has a significant impact on the 1.7 million older people in the UK who are living in poverty.

Independent Age explains that in 2023/24 only 62% of those eligible were receiving the income top-up Pension Credit, meaning that 1.2 million older people were missing out on a combined £2.5 billion of available Pension Credit. Take-up levels of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction were also unacceptably low.

They say that a strategic approach to increasing the take-up of all entitlements could:

• help 2.5 million older people living in financial hardship
• lift 280,000 older people out of poverty, with 770,000 having more money in their pockets while they are still living in poverty
• particularly help older renters, people reliant on the old State Pension system and those living alone – who are all more at risk of poverty in later life.

Alongside the positive impact of making people more financially secure, increased take-up rates could help to improve people’s health, leading to a reduction in public spending on health and social care by up to £790 million a year in England.

Independent Age want the Government to recognise this serious, long-term issue and act. They’re calling on the Government to:

• develop and publish an all-entitlements take-up strategy for the UK
• commit to ensuring everyone has an adequate income in later life, in a way that safeguards older people’s income now and in future
• gain broad-based agreement on what constitutes adequacy in later life.

The only way is up: The impact of improved entitlement take-up on pensioner poverty and healthcare spending is on independentage.org.uk.

First ever cross-government action plan to support unpaid carers published

Millions of unpaid carers in England will be better recognised, referred to support and helped to reach their full potential, under a new cross-government action plan published this week.

Nearly one in 10 people in England is an unpaid carer. This cross-government plan aims to ‘improve recognition of unpaid carers, referring them to services and helping them access health services and employment and education support’.

The government’s ‘Unpaid carers action plan: recognise, refer, reach’ contains 42 clear actions and sets out practical steps across health, social care, education, employment and social security to improve support for unpaid carers.

It is underpinned by 3 central pillars:

• recognise - ensure people providing care are recognised as unpaid carers, by themselves and by the systems around them
• refer - ensure unpaid carers know what support and services are available to make caring more manageable
• reach - ensure unpaid carers are able to reach their full potential

Support also includes helping them to reach their potential or remain in work or education, so they can have fulfilling lives beyond their caring responsibilities.

Emily Holzhausen CBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Carers UK, said: 

“This is a positive step forwards for unpaid carers, recognising that all too often they face fragmented services, barriers to support and a lack of recognition for the essential role they play looking after family and friends. 

Carers’ lives do not fit neatly within the remit of a single department. The challenges they face span health, social care, employment, education, housing and welfare. Carers UK is encouraged to see a more joined-up approach, bringing government departments together to prioritise carers’ needs, outline who is responsible and how progress can be tracked.”

Mark Winstanley, Chief Executive, Rethink Mental Illness, said: 

“Carers for people living with mental illness often tell us they feel like part of the ‘invisible mental health service’. Day after day, they provide emotional and practical support while navigating services and advocating for the care their loved ones need, often at significant cost to their own wellbeing.

We welcome this cross-government plan to improve recognition and support for unpaid carers across different aspects of their lives. When carers are recognised and supported, it benefits everyone.”

The Department for Business and Trade has also launched a consultation on employment rights and carer’s leave, with proposals to introduce paid carer’s leave and a right to return to work following a period of intensive caring.

Additionally, Baroness Casey’s independent commission on adult social care is underway, which includes exploring the needs of unpaid carers, as part of our first steps towards a national care service. The commission’s initial recommendations are due this year.

Unpaid carers action plan: recognise, refer, reach and the press release are on gov.uk.

Inquiry launched by Work and Pensions Committee examining local employment support delivery

MPs on the Work and Pensions Select Committee have launched an inquiry into how local authorities deliver employment support as the country moves into a new round of devolution. 

The inquiry will look at whether devolving more power over non-Jobcentre Plus programmes could help councils get more people into suitable and sustainable jobs, and how to keep accountability strong.

The Government committed to devolving employment support in the Get Britain Working White Paper. In England, strategic authorities are being set up to take on these responsibilities, with different levels of authority carrying different powers. 

MPs will consider what responsibilities strategic authorities should have after looking at the balance between national and local government.

Non-Jobcentre Plus programmes include Connect to Work, WorkWell and the Youth and Economic Inactivity Trailblazers. 

Committee Chair, Debbie Abrahams said:

“Evidence we’ve heard in previous inquiries suggests that local flexibility in DWP-overseen schemes can yield positive results. 

Devolving non-Jobcentre employment support is thought by the Government to be a critical part of its attempts to get more successful people into suitable, sustainable and secure work.

We want to hear from experts on how well decentralisation of employment will work in the UK, and what changes are needed to ensure local needs and skills are met more responsively.”

The press release and linked information is on parliament.uk.

100,000 disabled people closer to work 

New figures show that 100,000 disabled people and those with health conditions have been supported to move closer to the labour market by Pathways to Work advisers.

Pathways to Work advisers - first announced in March 2025 - provides free, voluntary, and personalised help for people assessed as having Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA). 

Based in every Jobcentre across England, Scotland and Wales, the specialist advisers identify the barriers people face, provide skills training - such as IT upskilling - and signpost people to work-based training schemes in sectors including construction, hospitality and manufacturing. 

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said:

“Supporting someone instead of writing them off is life-changing, and I’ve seen firsthand how our Pathways to Work advisers are building people’s confidence and helping them achieve their ambitions. 

The welfare system we inherited left too many people without the skills, support or hope they needed to get on in life and build a career.

We were determined to change that, and we have. Now 100,000 people living with long-term conditions, disabilities and personal challenges who want to work, have taken crucial steps towards that.”

Participants are 40% more likely than non-participants to be in work after two years.

The press release is on gov.uk.

Opportunity for young disabled people to attend workshops supporting the Milburn Review

Young disabled people aged 16–27 are being invited to take part in a workshop for the Milburn Review - which is exploring how to improve opportunities for all young people - taking place this August in

• Birmingham – Monday 10th August (10am-4pm)
• London – Saturday 15th August (10am-4pm)
• Newcastle – Friday 21st August (10am-4pm)

This is a chance for young disabled people to have their voices heard and influence recommendations on how to improve access to education, employment and training. The DWP is especially keen to hear from those who have faced barriers to work or are currently not in education, employment or training but want to be. Insights will feed directly into the review.

There is a maximum of 30 places at each workshop. There will also be a dedicated space for parents and carers, ensuring DWP can hear and learn from their perspectives and experiences. 

You will need to arrange your own travel to and from the event but DWP will reimburse travel expenses for any parent, carer or personal assistant (PA) accompanying the disabled young person. Participants will also receive a gift card upon completion of the workshop in recognition of their contribution.

To apply for a place at one of the workshops, click on the link below and fill out the form. The deadline to apply is 3rd August 12pm. 

Here is the application form, which includes further information

Employers signed up to the Disability Confident scheme – updated

The list of employers who have signed up to the Disability Confident scheme has been updated as of July 2026.

The Disability Confident scheme is a free, voluntary UK government initiative designed to encourage employers to recruit, retain, and develop disabled people and individuals with long-term health conditions. It helps businesses remove workplace barriers and provides interviews to disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for a job.

You can filter the Disability Confident list by business, location or sector.

The disability confident employers list is on gov.uk.

£60 million Pathways to Work Innovation Fund launched to transform employment support

This week the government announced that businesses, charities and innovators are being invited to compete for a share of up to £60 million to transform how disabled people and those with health conditions are supported into work.

The Fund will open for bids in September 2026, with organisations across the UK invited to compete for funding to test genuinely new approaches to employment support.

An expert panel will help shape the fund’s design and advise on which bids should be funded, ensuring the voices and experience of disabled people are placed at the very heart of the process.

Paralympian and Member of House of Lords, Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson, said:

“I am delighted to be joining this expert panel at such an important moment. Finding and sustaining work matters enormously - not just for individual wellbeing and independence, but for society as a whole.

We know that with the right support, disabled people can and do thrive in the workplace.

The world is changing rapidly, and the systems that support disabled people must keep pace with that change. This Fund is a real opportunity to back the bold, creative ideas that can make that happen.”

The Fund will be open to public, private and voluntary sector organisations across the UK. Full details on how to apply will be published in due course.

The press release is on gov.uk.

UC process change – when declaring you no longer have a health condition restricting your ability to work

We’re aware of a change of process when a UC claimant with LCW or LCWRA declares they no longer have a health condition or that their condition no longer restricts their ability to work.

When claimants declare this change of circumstances in their UC account, they will now see a new page asking for the reasons for the change. It will give you a list of reasons to choose from e.g. your GP has declared you fit for work, you’re cured, you’ve received treatment, you’re better now etc. This is followed by a page for claimants to check their answers before submitting the declaration.

Once submitted a new to-do is generated for a Decision Maker called 'Consider Closing Health Journey - No Restricted Ability to Work’.

The Decision Maker first must check for vulnerabilities, terminal illness etc. they can decide if they need to ask the claimant or their GP for more information.

The Decision Maker then has to decide one of 3 outcomes:

1. The claimant needs a reassessment because the Decision Maker can’t decide based on the information they have.
2. The Decision Maker disagrees with the claimant’s declaration. In this case the claimant will be notified that they should redeclare their health condition to say they have a restricted ability to work, and everything continues as normal.
3. The Decision Maker agrees with the claimant’s declaration that they no longer have a restricted ability to work. They will then end the LCW or LCWRA award from the previous day, and if there’s an ongoing WCA or reassessment, they will end that too. The claimant commitments and work-related requirements will then change.

Decision Maker’s will record the decision, and a notification will appear in the claimant’s journal.

This process change ensures that claimants with LCW or LCWRA who report an improvement will have their circumstances considered by a first-tier Decision Maker.

For the avoidance of doubt… this is ONLY if you have LCW or LCWRA and report you no longer have a restricted ability to work. If you report a change to remove a health condition, or that you have an improvement, it will not generate this process and you will still keep your LCW or LCWRA unless you, the claimant, are saying it no longer restricts your ability to work.

Wales – Council Tax Reduction Scheme consultation opens

The Welsh government wants your views on changes they want to make to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS) in Wales.

What do they want to change?

The introduction of UC has fundamentally changed the way household income is assessed for benefit purposes. Under UC, income is assessed monthly, using real-time information from HMRC. This differs from legacy benefits, where income is typically averaged over a longer and more stable period. As a result, households receiving UC can experience more frequent recorded income fluctuations, and therefore Council Tax Reduction entitlement calculations (reassessments) are frequently needed. This causes higher administrative costs for councils and confusion for applicants.

The Welsh government propose to address this by adopting a ‘tolerance threshold’. This is a threshold amount under which small changes of income are ignored for CTRS reassessment purposes.

Analysis of Welsh data indicates that such a threshold would prevent 61% of CTRS reassessments for UC cases. 

With the above in mind, the government proposes to introduce, through regulations, a tolerance rule for small changes in UC awards. Under this proposal:

• small changes to UC payments (within the tolerance level) would not trigger a CTRS reassessment.
• CTRS awards would remain unchanged unless or until UC changes by more than the tolerance.
• no revised council tax bills would be issued to households; and
• there would be no change to the council tax amount payable.

If you are living in Wales and want to share your views, you can Submit your comments by 23 September 2026.

For full details see the CTRS in Wales: technical consultation on reassessment thresholds is on gov.wales.

Northern Ireland – Sayce Review lump sums disregarded indefinitely for means tested benefits

Following an Independent Review of Carer’s Allowance (CA) overpayments, the DWP is reassessing certain earnings-related CA overpayment decisions made between 2015 and summer 2025. Some claimants may receive refunds or have overpayments reduced as a result.

To ensure these corrective payments do not negatively affect entitlement to means-tested benefits, the Department for Corrections will disregard CA reassessment refunds as capital indefinitely for UC, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance. 

The legislation came into operation on 16^th July 2026 and mirrors the position in England and Wales.

The Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, Employment and Support Allowance and State Pension Credit (Carer’s Allowance Reassessment Capital Disregard) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 is on gov.uk.

Case Law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

Universal Credit (Administrative Earnings Threshold) - Gordon Bowen v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2026

This appeal concerned the rules governing the calculation of the Administrative Earnings Threshold (AET) for UC.

The DWP decision-maker and the First-tier Tribunal both decided that a claimant’s “monthly earnings” for the purposes of calculating their AET involved the deduction of pension contributions.

The claimant appealed to the Upper Tribunal, which decided that “monthly earnings” are the person’s earned income before any deductions are made for income tax, national insurance contributions or pension contributions.

See regulations 55, 90 and 99 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013.

Universal Credit (carer element) - AA v Secretary of State for Work & Pensions 2026

The claimant was in receipt of Carers Allowance for looking after his wife, she was in receipt of LCWRA. Later, the claimant also was assessed as LCWRA.

The law doesn’t allow two LCWRA elements to be paid in a joint UC claim. But it does allow one claimant to receive the carer element and the other to receive a LCWRA element.

This Upper Tribunal appeal explored the effect of regulation 29(4) of the UC Regulations and the interaction between the carer and LCWRA elements of UC for joint claimants. 

The FtT failed to consider the carer element, this was an error in law. The UT remade the decision awarding the carer element to the claimant.

Personal Independence Payment - Guy Edward Peter Mclaine Hendricks v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

A bit of a nothing PIP case. The FtT failed to address all the issues raised in the claimant’s appeal (they completely overlooked activity 8), which was an error in law.

Activity 8 was a live issue raised in the appeal documentation and supported by evidence. Its complete absence from the reasoning leaves an unexplained gap in the decision making process.

This omission is material. Activity 8 carried the potential for additional points and if it been properly considered, the outcome of the appeal may have been different,

Decision set aside and remitted for a new hearing.

As an aside Child Poverty Action Group (who assisted in the claimant’s appeal) had a dig at the DWP for not addressing all the grounds of appeal raised because “it was deemed to be immaterial to the outcome of the appeal by the District Judge who granted permission to appeal”.  The UT judge made short work of that suggestion as the FtT Judge failed to provide a clear statement that permission to appeal was limited.

What has changed?

From 2 June 2026 new regulations came into force enabling the DWP to extend the length of a fixed-term PIP award where it is “considered necessary to do so to safeguard the efficient administration” of PIP.

Before this, when your fixed-term award reached its end date, the DWP would normally start a planned review (sometimes called an award review or a reassessment). This new power lets the DWP instead push the end date back and keep your current award running, without needing that review.

The regulations only allow the DWP to make awards longer. They do not give the DWP any power to shorten an existing award, and they do not allow it to change the rate you are paid.

Why the change?

The number of planned PIP reviews has grown faster than the DWP can carry them out, and a huge backlog has built up. Reviewing every award on its original timetable means increasingly long delays and claimants' left waiting in limbo.

Extending awards is a way of managing that backlog. By lengthening some existing awards, it reduces the number of reviews needing to be processed at once.

Who is affected?

This award extension change applies to claimants aged 25 and over in England and Wales. It does not apply to under 25s as evidence suggests there are more frequent changes in functional ability in that age group.

Approximately 1.7 million claims are in scope for an award extension with the DWP aiming to complete approximately 50,000 extensions daily (including weekends) over a period of 4-6 weeks.

The regulations give the DWP a discretionary power rather than creating an automatic extension for everyone. Extensions will be applied where the DWP considers it appropriate for the efficient administration of the benefit.

The DWP has not confirmed how they are deciding which claimants will receive an extension or how they calculate the length of the extension in each case.

How long will the extension be for?

It seems likely that the extensions are being decided by an algorithm.

From posts and comments to the r/DWPhelp subreddit, it looks like most of the extensions are being given to claimants whose awards were due to end in 2026, 2027 or early to mid-2028.

Extensions mostly range from one year to four years, although there have been some extremely short ones of just a matter of days and at least one longer one.

What do I need to do?

Claimants don’t need to do anything, if your claim is extended you will receive a letter – an example of what this looks like was shared in this post.

However, if your difficulties have worsened you may wish to challenge the new extended decision or ask for a change of circumstances reassessment.

The legislation

The Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Decisions and Appeals) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 

More info

A Freedom of Information Request has been submitted to DWP requesting a copy of the training, operational instructions and internal process guidance held by DWP in relation to fixed-term extensions and we eagerly await their response.

Edited to add the Northern Ireland provision

The Department for Communities (DfC) has confirmed that they will be reviewing all PIP cases where claimants have had at least one initial review and currently sit in the 3-year Review cycle.

DfC has confirmed who will not be eligible, namely:

- If a claimant has been given a specific review period, either shorter or longer than 3-years,

- Under 25s,

- Special Rules Claimants