The number of people claiming personal independence payments (PIP) in England and Wales has climbed to 3.6m as of October last year, underlining how steep the climb in the benefits bill since the Covid pandemic has been.Department for Work and Pensions figures show in February 2020, the month before the Covid pandemic, there were 3,875,758 people claiming disability living allowance (DLA) and PIP.But just four and a half years later, in August 2024, the figure had risen to 4,990,463.PIP is a payment to help people with extra living costs if they have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability and difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around. It has been replacing DLA since 2013.The rising number of claimants shows why politicians have consistently expressed concern over the sustainability of the benefits system in its current form.
And the sheer scale of the issue can be highlighted in the below chart, which plots PIP and DLA uptake from 2019 to 2024.
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The i Paper understands that the Chancellor has decided not to implement any further significant tax rises when she makes her Spring Statement on March 26 – even if the budget watchdog states that she is on course to break her self-imposed borrowing rules.
Instead, Reeves has submitted a range of policies to reduce welfare spending and the budgets of Whitehall departments.
The polices have been submitted to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) ahead of its updated forecast on the economy and public finances on the day of the Spring Statement.
The Chancellor had previously promised to hold only one “fiscal event” each year, but is now prepared to break that pledge in order to avoid losing the confidence of the markets by abandoning her fiscal rules.In January, Work and Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall, said the UK welfare budget must be put on a “more sustainable course”.She said: “We’re going to get the benefits bill on a more sustainable course – and it has to be, we cannot accept these costs of failure, failure for individuals, failure for businesses and failure for the economy.“But the way to do this is to get more people into work through the reforms that we’re putting in place in our Jobcentres and through reform of the benefit system. And we’ll be bringing forward our green paper on reforming sickness and disability benefits in the spring.”
Kendall is scheduled to make a major speech on the issue in the coming weeks ahead of a detailed paper setting out her proposals.
The measures proposed by the Treasury would see deeper cuts than previously planned. A Government source said: “We have to maintain our fiscal credibility, and reducing the welfare bill is part of that.”The previous Government also outlined plans to change Britain’s welfare system to reduce costs.Last year, former work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said Britain’s benefits system was not sustainable without serious change.People claiming PIP have a variety of conditions ranging from skin disease to mobility issues, but the number of claimants with psychiatric conditions has risen since the Covid pandemic.
The daily living part of the payment can be up to £108.55, and the mobility part up to £75.75.It can be claimed alongside other benefits like jobseeker’s allowance (JSA).
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