One of the major changes in society following the coronavirus pandemic has been the astronomical rise in sickness and disability. This is rendering millions of Brits out of work and reliant on the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) benefit.
More than 3.6 million people are now relying on this Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) disability benefit to get by, an increase of 50 per cent since February 2020, which is in part due to a rise in poor mental health with roughly half a million PIP claimants citing anxiety or depression.
At the same time, with the pandemic preventing in-person disability assessments, the vast majority of PIP claims began to be assessed remotely or via paper application. According to the DWP’s latest data, released in response to a question in the House of Lords, this dynamic has stuck, with between just two and four per cent of assessments now taking place face-to-face.
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Meanwhile, 77 per cent of claims are now being assessed remotely via video or telephone interview, and 18 per cent are submitting paper applications. All of this is taking place while the DWP faces a growing mountain of PIP applications, processing up to 100,000 each month in 2024, while in March 2020, just 29,000 were assessed.
Just two per cent of PIP claims were assessed in person in October 2024
With so many applications, many are waiting months to have an assessment, while some on the benefit are waiting more than a year to have their benefit award reviewed. But when they reach the assessment, around half of the applicants are successful in making these claims and receiving PIP, while just over a third receive the higher award for PIP – which can total as much as £737 per month in financial support.
To tackle these caseloads at the DWP, the Labour Government has promised to reform disability benefit by helping more people back into work, while hiring more assessors and outside contractors to help tack the backlog.
Importantly, Labour has also ruled out the Conservative proposals to turn the cash benefit into a voucher-based system, with Debbie Abrahams telling the Mirror that the scheme was “nonsense.” She said: “It shouldn’t be a political football. This is something we should hopefully come together around. I think this is really, really important so it’s not used as a political football – who can outdo anyone else about how harsh you’re going to be for social security.
“It’s there for all of us. Most disabilities are acquired. Any one of us could walk across the road and have an accident and find themselves on hard times.”
The latest DWP data breakdown of the top five reasons cited to make a PIP claim are:
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Psychiatric disorder (39%)
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Musculoskeletal disease (general) (19%)
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Neurological disease (13%)
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Musculoskeletal disease (regional) (12%)
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Respiratory disease (4%)