Number claiming main disability benefit tops four million for first time as welfare bill rises
Downing Street said the welfare system “has trapped people in poverty and kept them out of work for too long”
The number of people in England and Wales claiming the main disability benefit has passed four million for the first time, figures suggest.
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The Government said it is working to reform a welfare system which “has trapped people in poverty and kept them out of work for too long”.
Personal independence payment (Pip) is intended to help with everyday tasks and extra living costs if someone has a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability.
There were 4.01 million Pip claimants in April 2026, according to data published on Tuesday by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
This is up from 3.74 million a year earlier – a rise of 266,175, or 7%.
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The number of claimants has roughly doubled since comparable figures began seven years ago in January 2019, when the total stood at 2.05 million.
Last year, ministers were forced to climb down on plans to reform disability benefits, including for those with mental health conditions, in the face of backbench Labour opposition.
Instead of immediate reform, the Timms Review was put in place to gather views on Pip and how it works.
Minsters have promised any changes to the benefit have been postponed until after that takes place.
DWP said the review will ensure Pip is “fit and fair for the future”.
An interim update from the review is expected “in the coming months”.
While more than half of Pip claimants are aged 50 and over, this proportion has been falling over time, from 56.4% in January 2019 to 52.2% in April this year.
Teenagers and young adults continue to account for a growing proportion of those receiving Pip.
Some 16.6% of claimants in April this year were aged 16-29, up from 14.5% in January 2019.
There has been a similar rise for the 30-44 age group, which accounted for 20.9% in April, up from 18.9% in 2019.
By contrast, 45 to 59-year-olds made up 28.9% of claimants in April, down from 37.3% in 2019.
The figure for 60 to 74-year-olds has risen over this period, from 29.2% to 31.1%.
DWP said it was delivering on a commitment to increase face-to-face assessments and also pointed to a slowing in the increase in the Pip caseload under this government.
The latest figures showed just over a third (36.6%) of new Pip claims in April were granted, while 61.4% were disallowed and 2.1% were withdrawn.
The grant rate for new claims has been on a broad downward trend for the past two years, having been 40.0% in April 2025 and 46.2% in April 2024.
In April this year – as part of its efforts to reform welfare – the Government laid new legislation allowing disability claimants to work without the fear of losing their benefits under so-called Right to Try.
The change means employment will not automatically trigger a benefits reassessment for claimants who are on Pip, employment and support allowance (ESA) and the health element of universal credit (UC) in England, Wales and Scotland.
Downing Street said the welfare system “has trapped people in poverty and kept them out of work for too long”.
A No 10 spokeswoman said: “The broken system we inherited wrote nearly three million people off as too sick to work, left them off benefits, and saw the welfare bill rise by £88 billion over the last parliament and that’s why we are reforming the system.
“Those reforms are already under way, and we will go even further, which also includes increasing face-to-face Pip assessments and tackling backlogs in work capability assessments, which has contributed to £1.9 billion pounds in savings by 2030.”
A spokesperson for the DWP said: “We’re fixing the broken system we inherited by creating a welfare state that works for disabled people and taxpayers and have launched the Timms Review – co-produced with disabled people and their representative organisations – to make sure Pip is fit and fair for the future.”
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said the Conservatives would “review the entire Pip system, remove eligibility for low-level mental health Pip claims, rapidly assess hundreds of thousands of additional claims, and get Britain working again”.