What does the pledge mean?

Universal Credit (UC) is the UK’s main benefit system for working age adults who are on a low income and need help with living costs, including those who are in work, unemployed, or unable to work due to a health condition.

Since its initial introduction in 2013, it has consolidated six previous ‘legacy benefits’, including Working Tax Credits and Housing Benefit, although the complete shift from these to UC is not expected to be completed until 2028/29 at the earliest.

The standard rate of UC varies depending on the claimant’s age and relationship status, but for a single person over 25 it is typically £400.14 a month. Some claimants are entitled to additional payments if they have a health condition or disability limiting their ability to work—this is called the ‘health element’, and is assessed through a work capability assessment (WCA), with those entitled to extra payments assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA).

Additional payments are also available for carers or those who have children living with them.

Universal Credit is linked to earnings, meaning the specific amount a claimant is entitled to varies as they move in and out of work. A ‘work allowance’ enables claimants to earn a certain amount before UC payments are reduced.

Labour’s manifesto promised to review Universal Credit “so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty”, but did not specify what changes would be made, or what metrics would be used to assess any changes.

A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesperson told us in August 2025 that this referred to a review focussing on “the policy design and structure of Universal Credit”, but did not say if or when this review would be published. We have asked for further details and will update this article if we receive them.

What progress has been made?

We are currently rating this pledge as “wait and see”, as the government told us in August 2025 it was reviewing Universal Credit, but it remains unclear what form this review will take, when it will be concluded and if it will be published.

A DWP spokesperson said this review is to ensure the design of UC aligns with “our objectives of reducing poverty and making work pay”.

Separately, in June 2025, the government introduced the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill to make a series of changes to UC payments, among other welfare reforms.

This would have:

• increased the standard allowance of UC all claimants receive above inflation over four financial years from 2026/27, meaning it would be 4.8% higher by 2029/30 than it would have been under the normal practice of benefits uprating
  
  
• reduced the UC health element for most new claimants from 6 April 2025 by approximately half, from £432.27 a month to £217.26, then frozen this payment for each year until 2029/30
  
  
• frozen the level of the UC health element for existing claimants each year until 2029/30.

In an impact assessment, the government argued that these changes would tackle a “perverse” incentive for applicants to seek the UC health element, under which “they no longer get routine support to work”, because they would otherwise struggle on the “small amount” provided by the standard allowance.

However, amid concerns, including from Labour backbenchers, that the proposed reforms could push people into poverty, on 26 June 2025 work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall announced a series of changes to the bill.

This amended the plan to freeze the UC health element for existing claimants each year until 2029/30, instead pledging that they, alongside any new claimant deemed to have the “most severe and lifelong conditions”, would “have their incomes fully protected in real terms”.

An amended bill to incorporate these changes, renamed as the Universal Credit Bill, was subsequently passed by MPs in July 2025, and has now become law.

While the government has made these changes, it remains disputed whether they will achieve the aims of “making work pay” and reducing poverty.

In its subsequent impact assessment, the government estimated its welfare changes would result in 50,000 fewer individuals in relative poverty after housing costs, while adding that increased employment support pledged under the bill would also “reduce poverty among people it supports into work”.

But organisations including Scope, a disabilities charity, said the changes for most new UC health claimants are “disastrous” and could “push more people into poverty”, as these will see a reduction in health-related benefits compared to pre-existing claimants.

A DWP spokesperson said in August 2025: “We are reviewing Universal Credit to ensure it aligns with our objectives of reducing poverty and making work pay. This review is not duplicating existing work such as changes announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper but instead focuses on the policy design and structure of Universal Credit.”