New powers to directly request claimant bank account information, introduced under the PA(FER) Act, risks exposing more people who rely on social security payments to the risk of incorrect benefit suspensions. Incorrect universal credit suspensions can have severe consequences, pushing claimants – often reliant on it as their sole income – into hardship, debt, and homelessness. While supporting efforts to reduce fraud, this consultation response calls for the Code of Practice on these powers to include stronger safeguards, clearer limits on powers, improved transparency, and robust protections to ensure fairness and avoid harm to legitimate claimants.

The Greater London Assembly and London local authorities face key challenges in implementing the Renters’ Rights Act, including underfunded and inaccessible local authority enforcement and low renter awareness. The shift to conduct‑based evictions may increase ‘intentional homelessness’ decisions, risking more rough sleeping. The Act will strengthen renters’ rights, but effective use depends on advice services and support. This submission calls for improved enforcement practice, better awareness, increased funding for advice, coordinated action by the Mayor, and monitoring of rents and housing supply to protect affordability.

The abolition of the two‑child limit is a major step in tackling child poverty, expected to lift 450,000 children out of poverty. However, the briefing argues its impact will be undermined by the benefit cap and cuts to disability‑related support, leaving many families no better off. It highlights that some larger families and those with disabilities may see reduced or no gains. This briefing supports amendments requiring the government to assess these interactions, warning current policies risk limiting progress on reducing child poverty.

There is some evidence to suggest that features of the social security system – particularly health and disability benefit assessments – may be discouraging some young people from entering work, education or training. Fear of losing benefits, mistrust of a perceived hostile assessment process, and high refusal rates among younger claimants appear to particularly deter engagement. Evidence of poor‑quality decision‑making reinforces these concerns. This submission calls for assessment reform to build trust and warns that cutting or restricting disability benefits for young people would increase poverty without meaningfully improving employment outcomes.

Contrary to claims that personal independence payment (PIP) is too easy for disabled people to access, widespread poor decision-making is blocking many disabled people from accessing it, with 77% of appeals succeeding. Incorrect assessments often deny disabled people vital support, increasing hardship and discouraging work due to fear of a punitive response. The report identifies key flaws, including misapplied criteria and inadequate use of evidence, and calls for reforms such as improved guidance, reduced reliance on assessments, and fast‑track routes, arguing a fairer system would improve accuracy, trust and participation in work.

Remaining provisions in the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, particularly proposed reductions to the universal credit health element (UC‑H), pose significant concerns. These changes would reduce support for many seriously ill and disabled people, with potential implications for poverty and work incentives by increasing perceived financial risk when attempting employment. The briefing also raises questions about the degree to which the Timms Review of PIP will be meaningfully co‑produced with disabled people, noting the absence of clear mechanisms for shared decision‑making in its current framework.

While there is evidence that some aspects of the social security system can discourage disabled people from engaging with employment, proposals to restrict eligibility for personal independence payment (PIP) and reduce the adequacy of the health element of universal credit (UC) misdiagnose the problem. The real barriers to work are low Universal Credit standard allowance rates and distrust in PIP and work capability assessments. The submission recommends increasing baseline support, improving assessment transparency and accuracy, and retaining clear protections from sanctions for disabled people, while cautioning that proposed benefit restrictions, particularly for young people. could increase poverty without strengthening work incentives.

Proposed changes in the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, which would tighten PIP eligibility and reduce the universal credit health element, threaten to significantly increase poverty among disabled people and affect a substantial proportion of claimants, including many older individuals and those with physical conditions. There is also significant uncertainty about the scale of impact, and questions about whether transitional measures would sufficiently mitigate losses. This briefing concludes that further scrutiny of the proposals is needed, and asks MPs to reject the bill.