1,000 new PIP claims per day?

[flashbac]

Is this true? (From someone who is naturally cynical of government info.)

If it is, is there something else behind the statistic? Is it because people have to reapply or something like that?

This is from the government website:

"Monthly PIP awards have more than doubled since the pandemic, rising from 13,000 to 34,000 - a rate of around 1,000 new claims per day, or the population of Leicester every year."

I find the statistic unbelievable.

It won’t be people having to reapply. They’re saying they have new 34000 AWARDS every month; that means successful applications. There will be a lot more total applications as a lot are rejected.

They can’t lie about the number of actual pip claimants so it must be true. 34000 new successful claimants every month. It really can’t go on.

I just wonder what's causing it. Are more and more people getting into accidents, or is it all genetic conditions.

68million people in the uk if whom 3.7million received PIP

I think there has been a lot more diagnosing but not a lot of actual help. I don’t know if this is unfair but I think there is a degree of it being an available option. I think a lot of people are genuinely overwhelmed/ unhappy/ depressed/ anxious. I know I am but I get up plod into work get on with life as I have responsibilities. I wonder if some young people just “get into their own heads” and it spirals and they box themselves in.

There’s also a lot of info out there on what to say to ensure you get a positive decision.

this is probably not going to go down well as an opinion but I really do think a lot of this has to do with social media and the rise in people with fairly mild adhd or autism getting diagnosed and then applying for pip- I have seen a lot of Tik Toks showing how to answer the questions to apply for pip for autism and adhd etc
there's definitely a trend of being labelled neurodivergent and basically demanding resources and help that people don't really need imo

disclaimer I am autistic myself but if I'm honest I don't fully believe everyone getting g diagnosed privately with these things actually has them, i don't claim pip but my asd does effect my day to day life a lot, but I duvet see his money would help really though I do get help from adult autism team through cmht

Can I ask you something. What would an autistic student for example claim for? What would they need extra help with?

I have no idea! Autistic people have such a variety of needs it would be impossible to answer, some would need no extra help at all whilst otherwise may need substantial help.
school aged student I guess would be getting help through ehcp if they have one

My ex claims PIP. I am not denying that he has MH issues (ADHD undiagnosed until recently). However I do feel that the availability of PIP has meant that he’s not thinking about how he could get back to work, he’s quite content doing nothing. His PIP was downgraded and he’s just busy fighting to get it out back up so he has money. No thoughts on what support he could get to get back to work.

An autistic student if we’re talking about an adult at uni or college would be getting dsa.
i get pip for autism and some other issues, it required a lot of evidence, I seriously doubt people are getting it just from watching a TikTok of how to answer with no medical records etc to back it up with.

The number of PIP claimants has increased from 2.4m in 2020 to 3.7m today.

37% of claimants receive the highest level of award.

About 15% of claimants are in work.

Something strange is going on - I suspect it may be that it’s been identified as a good way of topping up out of work benefits to a liveable amount tbh.

Difficult to unravel who should actually be getting it (as yes, some people certainly should be receiving it) - vs who is taking advantage.

Autistic students will be receiving DSA which should cover the expenses generated by their need for support in education, in addition to PIP which supports additional general daily expenses caused by disability.

Autistic students usually receive additional mentoring (paid for from DSA), they may be unable to travel using public transport and so rely on taxis (paid for from their PIP), unable to work alongside their studies so using PIP to top up student loans for living expenses. Just some examples.

This is one of the issues Labour is focused on resolving - the risk of moving off benefits and into work is so great in terms of loss of income, and the effective tax rate on that income so high, there’s little incentive to do it.

That is IMO in part due to the fact the minimum wage and what is deemed a survivable sum to live on inc support for housing etc, aren’t that far off each other.

A good article from John Harris here. His take on it: the long term effects of Covid (which have rather been brushed over), plus many people who previously didn't want/ need the assessment have been pushed into it due to CoL.

My own take: this is what you get when meaningful mental health support is incredibly difficult to access- especially for young people- unless you are literally suicidal.

Also, the migration from tax credits to UC: many people were bobbing along quietly on tax credits, working the bare minimum or being self employed and earning very little, but being left alone. Now under the far more rigorous requirements of UC, they're starting to fall apart so are having to go for a formal assessment.

But can I take this opportunity to emphasise that people claiming PIP can and do work, a fact the government seems keen to obscure? 🙄

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/22/labour-disability-benefit-cuts-keir-starmer

I'm on PIP, not for MH reasons and have been for years and years. I have always worked full time whilst claiming.

I do think a lot of people assume PIP = unemployed

People know the criteria for diagnosis because it's plastered everywhere, I do wonder if they'd meet the criteria for diagnosis if they didn't know what to say... diagnosis report is medical evidence no? People will do right to choose, get a diagnosis because they know how to, I'm doing a bad job of explaining this but I don't think they're purposely lying to get pip or anything I don't even think they're purposely lying but I don't think that an assessment when you know the questions answers and criteria is very reliable, people will unconsciously answer with the "right" answers. I think the rise in everyone being called neurodivergent has an awful lot to do with social media and a lot of pathologising behaviour that falls within the realm of typical. At the end of the day there is only so much money and resources and the people that seem to shout the loudest about autism seem to be the ones who broadly don't have additional learning difficulties or huge communication struggles.

Look at the rise in cancer diagnosis etc.. Its not all MH related or down to ASD. Is there a statistic that narrows it by age? That would be interesting

Some of those 1000 claims a day will be those transferring from DLA

As a population we

have poorer access to healthcare and dental care
have lower quality housing than much of Europe
... at a higher cost, esp in the south
have fewer public amenities "" (parks, playgrounds, pools, sports facilities)
have a school system which is narrow and rigid
have a benefit system which doesn't always work to promote increased employment
have an aging population.

Incredibly, this has had an impact on the number of people with ill health and chronic conditions.

I can’t comment on government numbers as in my experience one number without details can easily give you a wrong picture however I can comment in general on PIP process as my daughter has disability.
There is no way you can get PIP just for having nothing, you need to have a serious medical diagnosis and supporting evidence.
PIP is often the only way for people to get some help. It shouldn’t be like this but the system is broken and simple things like seeing a medical professional is not available through NHS or other affordable channels so people need to go private and need to pay for this.
Someone above has commented and said that she doesn’t claim PiP but she has good support from her autism team. That’s the key. For a lot of people there is no good support from their relevant teams and that’s the problem. PIP is not the easiest help available but in many cases it’s the only help available.

Yes you have to reapply.

my award is for three years and then it needs to be reassessed.

Also children under 16 who are disabled get DLA not PIP and when they turn 16 need to claim PIP which looks like a new claim.

Why would they be unable to use public transport?

If they can't work during university does that change after university?

Id love to see the UK trial a basic living allowance given to every adult. No assessments, no applications, just everyone given £1000 a month (or whatever was deemed necessary for the very basics)

Those who couldn’t work or didn’t want to work would be able not without the need for lengthy, degrading assessments and those who already earned enough for a good standard of living would end up boosting the economy with the extra money they received.

Yes there are flaws - like it every system - but I’d love to see it trialled. There would be zero benefit fraud, no need for pip assessors, benefits advisors and so on which would provide some of the money needed to fund this and I’m certain it would push people back into work from living on benefits.

Marginal taxes PLUS marginal benefit losses have been a major problem for a couple of decades. Some people end up worse off by working, or working a few more hours. That was the whole point of the switch from Tax Credits to Universal Credits, but it didn't get seen through to a proper conclusion, so what we have is still a fudge, not much better (if at all) than Brown's flawed tax credits systems. We need to find a way to change the tax/benefits rules so that no one is ever worse off by working or by working more. In fact I'd go further and say there should be an over-ride where someone on benefits always gets to keep 50% of any extra earnings they receive, whether for a first job, or if they're on working benefits, for taking an extra shift or a promotion, etc. MAKE WORK PAY - both parties say it, but neither actually make it happen.

A lot of those will be the legacy DLA claimants being forced to claim a new claim of PIP. And then children who are on DLA at 16 have to make a new claim for PIP rather than being transferred over as a exsiting claim.

then you have the influx of cancer cases, cancer is massively on the rise since covid.

The data shows that MH is an expanding primary condition in PIP claims
https://obr.uk/box/trends-in-working-age-disability-benefit-onflows/#:~:text=Chart%20F%20shows%20PIP%20onflows%20for%20mental,38%20per%20cent%20of%20onflows%20in%202023%2D24.

However other conditions still make up the majority of claims.