Disabled mum 'on the breadline' after benefits cut

Katty has recently had her PIP payments reduced

A mum with a spinal condition has said she's worried more disabled people will "slip through the net" due to planned government changes to Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

Katty King-Coulling from Maidenhead started to experience cauda equina syndrome, a rare condition which leads to compression of the lower spinal cord.

The eligibility criteria for PIP will be tightened from November 2026 under new plans announced by the government in March.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said all assessments are conducted "rigorously" but admitted the process needs modernising.

Following her most recent assessment Mrs King-Coulling, 39, was downgraded to the daily living standard rate of £320 a month and lost her mobility funding.

The changes mean that she will miss out on a monthly mobility payment of £114.80.

She had been working as a healthcare assistant for the NHS in 2018 when she first started to experience cauda equina.

After emergency surgery and rehabilitation that included physiotherapy she was left with bladder incontinence and chronic pain that limits her mobility

Mrs King-Coulling said: "A bad day for me is not being able to get out of the bed. Being in agony. It feels like my pelvis is being snapped in half, if you imagine a wishbone. Although this pain is constantly in the background it varies at different levels."

"My fear is that for the changes they will make will let further people with disabilities slip through the net. I don't want to see further incidents where people have taken their own lives because they have not been listened to, they've just been dismissed."

"For those who go: You should be able to get up and work, unless you're a vegetable you should be working. It's not that I don't want to work, I'm trying to contribute, it's whether or not the working environment wants to employ me."

In response the DWP said "All PIP assessments are conducted rigorously and are independently audited to ensure claimants are receiving the same high-quality service.

"But we recognise the assessment needs modernising so it's fit for the future. This is why we are launching a review of the PIP assessment that will bring together a range of experts and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this."