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Woman 'losing sleep' over disability welfare reform

Felicity Evans
Money editor, BBC Wales News
BBC Sam Brown, a woman in her forties with long brown hair dyed red at the ends and wearing a pink top. She is wearing glasses. Behind her is a metal fence with a hedge behind it. The sloping roof of a house can be seen in the left hand side of the shot.BBC
Sam Brown, who receives Pip, is blind in one eye and has less than 25% vision in the other

A woman with severe sight loss has said she is losing sleep over changes to the welfare system announced by the UK government.

Sam Brown, 43, from Pontypridd in Rhondda Cynon Taf, is one of more than 3.6 million people in the UK who receive a disability benefit called Personal Independence Payments (Pip).

Plans to restrict eligibility for Pip were announced last week, a move Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed in the Spring Statement on Wednesday, saying it "can't be right" that some people were improperly using Pips.

The UK government said the proposed changes to the welfare system would save £5bn a year by 2029-30 and get more people into work.

More than 3 million families will lose out financially as a result of cuts to welfare benefits by 2030, amount to an average loss of £1,720 a year, government analysis shows.

More than 14% of working age people in Wales - about 275,000 people - claim Pip.

The sweeping changes to the welfare system will also affect the health element of universal credit, which is claimed by about 150,000 in Wales.

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