Here’s how many Brits now claim disability benefits – and how much it costs the UK
Key Points
- PIP claimants in England and Wales reached 4.01 million in April 2026, up 7% year on year and roughly double the January 2019 figure
- Working-age PIP spending doubled from £11 billion in 2019/20 to £22 billion last year, with forecasts running above £30 billion by 2029/30
- The Timms Review interim report found nearly 90% of 38,000 respondents consider the system broken; final recommendations arrive in autumn 2026
- Ministers plan to scrap the Work Capability Assessment from 2028, making the PIP assessment the single gateway for health-related benefits
- Burnham has signalled tighter conditionality with support, including mental health support, delivered in work
Four million people in England and Wales now claim personal independence payment, and the working-age bill has doubled to £22 billion in six years.
The Department for Work and Pensions recorded 4.01 million PIP claimants in April 2026 in data it published in June, up 7% in a year and roughly double the 2.05 million on the books in January 2019, when comparable figures begin.
The Timms Review terms of reference also set out the spending trajectory behind that growth.
PIP spending on working-age claimants rose from £11 billion in 2019/20 to £22 billion last year, with the forecast running above £30 billion a year by 2029/30.
Press Association reporting puts the total forecast above £41 billion by the end of the decade.
Where the claims are growing
Close to 10 million working-age people in the UK are disabled, or 23% of that population, a figure that has grown by nearly 3 million since 2013/14 – but the increase in people receiving disability benefits runs at double the rate of increasing prevalence among working-age adults in England and Wales.
Press Association analysis found the number of claimants classed as having autistic spectrum disorders has more than doubled in six years.
Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden told the Timms panel it must examine whether the assessment process suits the range of conditions people now report, given the benefit was conceived 13 years ago.
What the Timms review found
Stephen Timms published the interim findings of the first full review of PIP since its 2013 introduction on 9 July 2026.
Nearly 90% of the 38,000 people who responded said the system is broken, and the interim report recorded claimants describing the application process as dehumanising, soul destroying and degrading.
A government spokesperson said the interim report shows PIP as designed in 2013 no longer suits its purpose, and that final recommendations due this autumn will lay the foundation for reform.
The review reports to the secretary of state for work and pensions by autumn 2026.
The assessment carries more weight from 2028. Ministers plan to remove the Work Capability Assessment, after which the PIP assessment becomes the single gateway for health-related and disability benefits.
What Burnham said
Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the BBC the country has to get serious about bringing the welfare bill down, and indicated he could tighten the conditions attached to receiving support.
He declined to blame claimants directly, pointing instead to people in their 20s who he said the system let down when support should have been there.
Burnham set out the mechanism in the same interview: changing the nature of the support and making some of it conditional on people taking opportunities put in front of them, with mental health support provided in work.
That framing puts occupational health and in-work mental health provision inside the government’s route to cutting the bill, ahead of the Timms recommendations in the autumn.
McFadden stays at the DWP, where he may attempt a fresh package after a backbench rebellion last year forced a partial U-turn on £5 billion of cuts.
