How will Universal Credit cuts impact disabled parent carers?

4 mins read

Wednesday 5 November 2025

Join us for a parent webinar next Thursday 13 November for families across the UK, looking at cuts to the Universal Credit health element.

This summer the government announced a cut to the Universal Credit health element – better known as the limited capability for work and work-related activity element.

We are inviting parents to join us for a special webinar via Zoom next Thursday 13th November, 10-11.15 am. We’ll be looking in detail at how the cut may impact disabled parent carers.

What is the cut to the health element?

The health element cut is scheduled to happen on 6 April 2026. It will see the health element drop from £423 to £217 a month for some new claimants.

This cut won’t affect existing recipients of the health element. However, to be treated as an existing claimant, it is not enough to simply be getting Universal Credit before 6 April 2026. Your Universal Credit also needs to include an entitlement to the health element that started before that date.

This means that some parents will need to take action well before April. There is a qualifying period of three-four months between submitting fit notes and entitlement to the health element beginning.

For example, a parent carer on Universal Credit with their own health problems may not have submitted fit notes before. If they would like to be assessed for the health element, it will be in their interests to do so under the existing rules. This ensures that they will be protected and receive higher payments of the health element. To guarantee that they are treated as an existing claimant, they cannot wait until April; they would need to submit fit notes before 6 December!

What will our webinar cover?

The webinar will look at:

  • What the health element is and how you qualify for it.
  • Which groups of new claimants will be protected from the cut in the health element.
  • The steps disabled parent carers can take to ensure they are protected as an existing claimant, and the dates they need to do this by.

The webinar will be of particular interest to the following groups:

  • Parent carers on Universal Credit who are themselves disabled but who haven’t yet submitted fit notes and asked to be treated as having a limited capability for work.
  • Parent carers or young disabled people already on Universal Credit and assessed as having limited capability for work only, but whose health has deteriorated and who think they may now also have a limited capability for work-related activity.
  • Parents of young disabled people who are not prevented from claiming Universal Credit as a student but who have not yet got round to making a claim. For example, young people who are not in education, or those on a part-time course, or those who have passed the 31 August after their 19th birthday and who remain in full-time non-advanced education.

Please note that this webinar will not look in detail at the government’s separate proposal to scrap the health element altogether for under 22s. This is because the government has not yet responded to the consultation it carried out into this proposal.

This webinar will be presented by benefits advisers from Contact’s Family Finance team.

Sign up now!

To find out more about this webinar and to sign up, visit our Eventbrite page. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

New to webinars?

A webinar is a presentation live on the internet. You will be able to hear the presentation live, follow the slides and submit questions for the presenters to answer. You will need a home computer, laptop, tablet or smart phone.

Can’t make 13th November?

We will post a recording of the webinar on our webpages, shortly after the event has taken place.