PIP Statistics 2026: Key UK Facts and Figures

This page pulls together the key Personal Independence Payment statistics for 2026 in one place, with every figure dated and sourced. As of the latest official data, around 4 million people are entitled to PIP in England and Wales, about 37% receive the highest possible award, and roughly two in three PIP appeals that reach a tribunal succeed. Below you will find the numbers on claimants, award rates, waiting times, appeals, rates and spending, each linking to our full guide on that topic.

All figures last checked: July 2026. Sources are listed at the foot of the page. PIP statistics are published quarterly by the DWP, and tribunal figures quarterly by the Ministry of Justice, so some numbers move each quarter.

How many people claim PIP in the UK?

As at 30 April 2026, around 4 million people were entitled to PIP in England and Wales, up about 2% on the figure three months earlier. Of these, roughly 3.3 million (83%) were of working age and 680,000 (17%) were of State Pension age. The number has grown steadily for several years, part of a longer rise in working-age disability and health-related benefit claims.

Two things are worth remembering when you read a "UK" figure. Scotland no longer uses PIP for new claims - it has replaced it with Adult Disability Payment (ADP), run by Social Security Scotland - so DWP PIP figures cover England and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own PIP, delivered by the Department for Communities rather than the DWP, with the same rules and rates. So the true UK-wide disability-benefit caseload is higher than the England-and-Wales PIP number alone.

How the number of PIP claimants has grown

The PIP caseload has risen sharply in recent years. Working-age disability benefit numbers have grown from around 2.1 million in 2019/20 to well over 3.4 million more recently, and the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts the PIP caseload reaching roughly 5.4 million by 2030/31. Several things sit behind this: wider awareness of PIP, more people reporting mental health conditions, older Disability Living Allowance claimants moving onto PIP, and population growth. This rise is the main reason PIP now has such a large planned-review backlog, and it is the backdrop to the ongoing review of the benefit.

It is worth being clear about what the growth does and does not mean for you. More people claiming does not make it harder to qualify, because PIP is not capped or rationed. Each claim is still assessed on its own facts against the same activities and descriptors. If your condition affects you in the ways those descriptors describe, the size of the national caseload has no bearing on your own entitlement.

What share of PIP claims are successful?

There is no single "success rate" that fits every claim, because outcomes depend far more on how the functional impact is described and evidenced than on the diagnosis. What the official data does show is the shape of awards. Of everyone entitled to PIP as at 30 April 2026, about 37% receive the highest possible award - both the daily living and the mobility component at the enhanced rate. The rest hold some combination of standard and enhanced components across the two parts of PIP.

On new claims, the DWP cleared roughly 160,000 of them in the quarter to January 2026, from about 190,000 registrations. For a fuller picture of how many new claims are awarded and how that has changed, see our guide to the PIP approval rate in 2026. The single biggest driver of whether a claim succeeds is the descriptors you meet, applied through the reliability test.

How long do PIP claims and reviews take?

New PIP claims are taking a number of weeks from registration to a decision, and planned award reviews have built up into a significant backlog. The DWP has said that, at the current rate of clearance, it could take close to ten years to work through all the outstanding reviews - which is why it took a new power in June 2026 to extend existing awards rather than review every one on its original date.

For the current typical timescales, see our guides to PIP waiting times in 2026 and the PIP review backlog and delays. The reassuring headline: if your review is running late, your existing award simply continues at the same rate in the meantime.

PIP mandatory reconsideration and appeal success rates

If a decision goes against you, the numbers strongly favour challenging it - but the two stages behave very differently.

• Mandatory reconsideration (MR): the DWP changes its own decision in only around a fifth to a quarter of mandatory reconsiderations. Many people are refused at this stage and then win later.
• Appeal to a tribunal: around two in three PIP appeals that reach a hearing are decided in the claimant's favour. Figures from HM Courts and Tribunals Service have put this at roughly 66%, and some measures run higher.
• Won without new evidence: the DWP's own data has shown that the large majority of successful appeals are won without any new medical evidence - on the same facts the department already held. That tells you how often the original decision was simply wrong.

The trade-off is time: the wait from lodging an appeal to a hearing has been running at around 33 weeks. For the detail and how to give yourself the best chance, see our guide to the PIP tribunal success rate and the full tribunal guide.

PIP payment rates in 2026

PIP has two parts, daily living and mobility, each paid at a standard or an enhanced rate. From 6 April 2026 the weekly rates are:

• Daily living, standard: £76.70 a week
• Daily living, enhanced: £114.60 a week
• Mobility, standard: £30.30 a week
• Mobility, enhanced: £80.00 a week

The maximum award, enhanced on both parts, is £194.60 a week - about £778.40 every 4 weeks (PIP is paid four-weekly) or roughly £10,119 a year. Rates rose by 3.8% in April 2026 in line with inflation. For every combination and what each is worth, see our PIP rates 2026 guide.

Award lengths, reviews and the 2026 extension power

Since 2 June 2026, new regulations (SI 2026/457) have let the DWP extend existing fixed-term PIP awards instead of reviewing each one on its original date. Most claimants aged 25 and over are likely to benefit, receiving a letter that simply moves their review date later while their payments continue unchanged. The power cannot be used to cut or reduce an award. See the June 2026 extension rules and what a PIP extension letter means.

How much does PIP cost the government?

PIP spending in England and Wales is forecast at around £21.7 billion in 2025/26, and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) projects it rising to about £44.7 billion by 2030/31, with the caseload forecast to reach roughly 5.4 million over the same period. Across all the main disability benefits combined - PIP, Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance - the UK is spending in the region of £77 billion in 2025/26. This rapid growth is the backdrop to the Timms Review and the wider debate about the future of the benefit, though PIP itself has not been cut in 2026.

Citing these PIP statistics

You are welcome to link to this page. The figures here are drawn from official UK sources - DWP Personal Independence Payment statistics, Ministry of Justice tribunal statistics and OBR welfare forecasts - and the page is updated as new quarterly releases are published. Each figure is dated so you can see how current it is, and the original sources are listed below.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many people are on PIP in the UK?

Around 4 million people were entitled to PIP in England and Wales as at 30 April 2026, about 83% of working age and 17% of State Pension age. Scotland uses Adult Disability Payment instead of PIP, and Northern Ireland runs its own PIP, so the UK-wide disability-benefit caseload is higher still.

What percentage of PIP claims are successful?

There is no single official success rate, because the outcome depends on how your condition affects you rather than the diagnosis. What the data shows is that about 37% of people entitled to PIP receive the highest award (both components enhanced), and that many claims refused at first are later overturned. See our PIP approval rate guide for the new-claim figures.

What percentage of PIP appeals are successful?

Around two in three PIP appeals that reach a tribunal are decided in the claimant's favour - HM Courts and Tribunals Service figures have put this near 66%, with some measures higher. Mandatory reconsideration succeeds far less often, in roughly a fifth to a quarter of cases, so many people only win at the tribunal stage.

How much is PIP in 2026?

In 2026/27 the weekly rates are daily living at £76.70 (standard) or £114.60 (enhanced) and mobility at £30.30 (standard) or £80.00 (enhanced). The maximum, enhanced on both parts, is £194.60 a week, which is about £778.40 every 4 weeks or roughly £10,119 a year.

How long does a PIP decision take in 2026?

New claims take a number of weeks from registration to a decision, and planned reviews have built into a large backlog that the DWP says could take close to ten years to clear at current rates. If a review is delayed, your existing award continues unchanged. See our waiting times and review backlog guides for the current timescales.

Is PIP being scrapped?

No. PIP has not been scrapped or cut in 2026, and the rates, activities and descriptors are unchanged apart from the routine April uprating. The independent Timms Review is examining the future of the assessment and published an interim report in July 2026, with a full report due in autumn 2026, but any change would need new legislation after that.

How much does PIP cost the government?

PIP spending in England and Wales is forecast at around £21.7 billion in 2025/26, projected by the OBR to rise to about £44.7 billion by 2030/31. Combined spending on PIP, DLA and Attendance Allowance is in the region of £77 billion in 2025/26.