Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announces changes to the welfare system aimed at saving £5bn by the end of 2030 - BBC Verify has taken a look at this number
Personal Independence Payments (Pip): Eligibility for the main disability benefit will be narrowed
Changes to Pip are likely to be the most politically controversial element of today's announcements, our political correspondent Henry Zeffman writes
Universal credit: The measure used to determine if someone is able to work will be scrapped in 2028 and will instead be assessed through Pip
Merging benefits: The government will consult on merging jobseeker's allowance and employment support allowance
"Right to try": People will have the right to try returning to work "without the fear this will put their benefits at risk", Kendall says
The Tories say the announcements are "too little, too late" while the Lib Dems say real cultural change is needed at the Department for Work and Pensions
Watch: Henry Zeffman explains what welfare changes mean
Thanks for joining us today for our live coverage of the government's announcement of changes to the welfare system.
We are now closing this page, but there is plenty of analysis and news across the BBC:
We've spent today covering the announcement of plans for major changes to the benefits system aimed at cutting the growing amount the UK spends on welfare.
Here's a quick look at six key proposals we heard of today:
The Scottish government says Liz Kendall’s announcements are “devastating for disabled people”.
Scotland’s Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville tells BBC Radio Scotland Drivetime: “I know the announcement has been made, but I would strongly, strongly urge the UK government to reconsider.”
She says the reaction from disabled people shows the “strength of anger, real concern and desperate worry” put on some of the most vulnerable in our society.
“That surely can’t be what a Labour government are supposed to be doing to some of our most vulnerable.
“They have got this wrong, they need to reflect on that, reflect on it quickly and this is one of those times when the UK government needs to develop a conscience and actually respond to what disabled people are saying to them.”
Chris Mason now puts it to Liz Kendall that the benefits bill is still going up and would continue to do so with these planned reforms in place.
Kendall accepts spending will rise, but she says the way to put welfare on a more "sustainable footing" is by getting people into work.
"That is what we have failed to do for years and years," she says.
Watch more below as our political editor asks Kendall if the changes announced this afternoon are sustainable - both for the national finances and for recipients.
Liz Kendall: There is a Labour case for welfare reform
Asked by Chris Mason if she didn't go further with her reforms because of "jitters within her own party", the work and pensions secretary says Labour wants to "fix a failing system."
"My starting point is not how far or how tough the government is, my starting point is how do we get a system that works for people who depend on it and works for taxpayers in the country as a whole."
Our political editor, Chris Mason, now puts it to Kendall that she should talk to people with disabilities or health conditions who cannot do daily tasks and say they deserve less money.
"That is not what we're saying," the work and pensions secretary replies, adding that changes are "not coming in overnight".
Benefits for people with severe disabilities "who will never work" will be protected, Kendall adds.
She says new claimants will have their cases assessed based on specific individual needs from 2026.
Over now to the BBC's political editor Chris Mason, who's been speaking to Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall after she unveiled the government's reforms to welfare.
He starts by asking her how many current benefits claimants would get less money under the changes.
Kendall does not answer the question directly, saying the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will come forward with an estimate by the Spring Statement.
Asked why the government won't publish its assessment of the figure now, Kendall says it's because they wanted to publish their Green Paper before the Spring Statement.
Tom Espiner
Business reporter
The government's reforms are the biggest welfare cut since 2015, and tilt the welfare system away from disabled people to the unemployed, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank says.
For decades the UK incapacity benefit - now paid through Universal Credit - has been separated from payments for higher living costs from a disability, which are paid through Personal Independence Payment (Pip).
From 2028-2029, they will be amalgamated - meaning there will be no support specifically for disabilities that prevent work. This will leave 600,000 people worse off by £2,400, it says.
Furthermore, 2.4 million families that get incapacity benefit will get £280 less a year in 2029-2030 - but 4.5 million other families on universal credit will get £150 more a year.
Those who continue to get Pip will also be able to claim incapacity benefit - which is an extra £2,400.
The IFS says "there’s a clear risk here". It will weaken the incentives for people who can work to do so, while targeting stronger incentives and employment support at those who may not be able to work.
It's unclear how much tightening the Pip eligibility criteria will save the government because claimants are incentivised to approach the assessment differently.
"Previous governments attempting similar reforms have found that they have saved much less than hoped," the IFS says.
Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent
This is a complex set of proposals, but the response from charities representing benefit claimants is quite simple to summarise.
In short, they say there is some good in here - specifically the “right to try” plan of allowing people to have a go at returning to work without putting their benefit entitlement at risk.
But this is trumped by their concern about the £5bn-a-year cuts, which they say will create greater hardship for a group of people already struggling to make ends meet.
Thomas Lawson, chief executive of the anti-poverty charity Turn2us, says: “The cuts will harm more people than they help.”
Eleanor Lawrie
Social affairs reporter
In her speech, Liz Kendall suggested the number of people reporting a mental health condition had risen 190%.
More than half of the rise in working age people claiming disability benefits since the pandemic stems from claims relating to mental health or behavioural conditions, according to think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), external.
About 1.3 million people - or 44% - of all claimants are claiming disability benefit primarily for one of these conditions, the IFS says, while 86% report having a mental health condition.
Why has there been such a big increase?
According to the Labour Force Survey, the number of people who report having a long term mental health condition has increased from about 8% a decade ago to over 14% last year.
Deaths of despair - those from suicide, drug and alcohol poisoning and alcohol-related conditions - have also been steadily rising.
Douglas Fraser
Business and economy editor, BBC Scotland
In trying to balance reform with savings, one casualty of Liz Kendall's plans has been the opportunity to simplify.
Navigating through the system was already complex.
Now, with Personal Independence Payments (Pip) being replaced in Scotland by an Adult Disability Payment, the thresholds to qualify look set to diverge, and likewise the case review process.
Holyrood has been using its limited devolved powers over welfare benefits to design a system with "dignity, respect and fairness" at its heart.
Yet it looks like a Scottish government official will be applying the toughened rules for the non-devolved Universal Credit.
Employability support is partly devolved. With more requirements from Whitehall for engagement, a Scot with "risk of long-term unemployment" may be handled differently in a Holyrood-backed programme compared with a work search interview required of GB claimants to qualify for Universal Credit.
Liz Kendall's plan merely acknowledges, and repeats, that there will have to be discussions with the Scottish government.
But as her plan implies big cuts to the Treasury block grant to Holyrood, such discussions are unlikely to start with much warmth or goodwill.
Gareth Lewis
Political editor, BBC Wales
Changes to welfare could have a disproportionate impact in Wales, where places like Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil have some of the highest health-related claim rates in England and Wales.
During today's First Minister’s Questions, the leader of Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwerth, invited the FM, Eluned Morgan, to condemn the changes.
She stopped short, saying that reform was needed, but admitted not only that she had concerns, but also that she had called Downing Street last week and had written to Liz Kendall about them.
She told the Senedd that “some” of the points were taken on board, which suggests that not all of them were.
The political stakes are high – the next Senedd election is just over a year away, and both Labour and Plaid are trying to convince voters that they offer the best option for Wales.
Michael Buchanan
Social affairs correspondent
My inbox is full of responses to the government’s announcement, virtually all of them opposed to the plans.
The changes will “shame” the government, said one charity. A lack of moral choices, said another. A third expects the cuts to push more people towards food banks.
Many of those charities, it must be said, were already unhappy after the government cut the winter fuel allowance last year, a change ministers applied knowing it would push tens of thousands of pensioners into poverty.
Few organisations argue with providing more opportunities for people to move into work, with appropriate support, and the government’s recent rhetoric about making job centres places where people find work rather than a place to comply with benefit rules has been welcomed.
But the Treasury’s insistence on immediate cuts means that most anti-poverty campaigners see these reforms as simply a dash to save cash.
A number of Labour MPs expressed disquiet in the Commons after the work and pensions secretary outlined her plans.
Here's whip-around of what some of the more sceptical Labour MPs had to say:
We've had a lot of technical detail on the government's plans to reform welfare.
If you're looking for a quick overview, our chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman's got you covered:
Watch: Henry Zeffman explains what welfare changes mean
Faisal Islam
Economics editor
There’s something a little odd about the fact we are getting no breakdown of which of these welfare policies is generating the £5bn per year cash saving by 2029/30.
Liz Kendall suggested that the final costing was still to be done ahead of the Spring Statement next week, by the government’s independent forecaster the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
But the government will already have a clear idea of how many people are affected, and by how much, and many are concerned right now.
The bottom line is that you cannot generate £5bn in savings without hundreds of thousands of people losing thousands of pounds.
While in the universal credit savings, much of the impact is generated by changes for future claimants, raising the eligibility age to 22 and halving the health payment, this does not appear to be the case for Personal Independence Payments (Pip).
Pip payments are determined by a questionnaire about daily life. Claimants will no longer be eligible unless they score four points, indicating a more severe disability in one area. (Our head of statistics, Robert Cuffe, explained how this would work in our previous post).
The bottom line here is that a pattern of recent mental health claims has been based on a range of less severe issues.
The changes announced today aim to take Pip payments away from such people from November 2026. The government knows how many, and who they are.
For now, until the Spring Statement next week, we can deduce that there are hundreds of thousands who will lose their entire £70 a week or £3,500 a year payment.
Robert Cuffe
Head of statistics
Pip assessments involve questions about parts of your daily life - like preparing and eating food, washing and getting dressed or communicating and reading.
Each are scored on a scale from zero - for no difficulty - to 12 - for the most severe - by a health professional.
Your payment depends on the total score across all areas.
The proposed change is that people will need to score at least four on one item, instead of qualifying for support with a score that could describe less severe difficulties (ones and twos) across a broad range of activities.
For example, needing an aid or appliance to speak or hear counts as two points, while needing support to express or understand complex verbal information counts as four points.
And needing help to wash your hair, or your body below the waist, would be awarded two points, but needing help to wash between the shoulders and waist would equate to four points.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has announced a number of changes to Personal Independence Payments (Pip) - a key disability benefit paid to people in England and Wales.
So what were they?
Read more: Key changes to benefits in welfare shake-up, at a glance
By Anthony Reuben
The work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, said that the package of measures announced today would save £5bn a year in 2029-30.
That figure is not mentioned in the document the government published today., external
When the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) made its last set of forecasts in October it estimated that benefits for working age adults would rise from £48.5bn in 2023-24 to £75.7bn in 2029-30.
A £5bn saving would be less than one fifth of that predicted rise.
When asked for more details of the costings, Kendall said that we would have to wait for final costings from the OBR during the Spring Statement next week.
Dharshini David
Chief economics correspondent
Today's statement will be worrying for the three million working-age people who receive Personal Independence Payment (Pip).
But with the number of recipients set to rise to over four million by 2030, adding an extra £12bn to welfare spending, the government's clear on the need to curb ballooning costs.
And with only 3% of people who are classed as long-term sick returning to employment, this is an area where attention is clearly needed.
But it is unclear how successful these measures will be in either aim.
We won't know exactly how much the government hopes each of these measures will save - or the assessment of the independent official forecasters, the OBR, of those estimates until the chancellor's Spring Statement next week. And any estimates are just that - highly uncertain.
Prior attempts to trim welfare bills have proved tricky for many reasons.
And that includes the state of the labour market. To get people into work, there have to be jobs.
As it stands, a recent survey by official statisticians found that one in four medium and large employers were planning to cut jobs - many cited the impact government policies such as the rise in employers NICS and increase in employee rights.
Some, including the Bank of England, are predicting unemployment to rise and its likely to be lower paid posts that are hardest hit. You may want a job - but finding it may be getting harder
