The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is facing calls to stop awarding Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for two conditions it was 'never originally for' – anxiety and ADHD. New figures reveal that PIP benefits are being handed out for these conditions every seven minutes.
Rise in Claims
Last year, new claims included 16,728 awards for ADHD, with seven in ten of those receiving the higher 'Enhanced' allowance. A further 60,292 people received new awards for anxiety-related conditions, including 28,020 at the higher level.
Calls for Reform
Former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: 'The biggest problem is that no assessments are done face-to-face. These claimants must be seen in person in the early part of their claim. The government haven’t prioritised bringing this back after Covid. PIP was never originally for anxiety and ADHD.'
He added: 'The problem for mental health issues is that there really are no tests you can set for somebody to adequately assess this. This needs to be addressed. Depression and anxiety are very curable conditions, including getting back to work, but there are no incentives for this. Rather than paying them through benefits, there is a significant range of policies to deal with this. The Government should work to get these people into jobs.'
Sir Iain continued: 'Changes have to be made to tighten up on depression and anxiety. The Government has pretty much lost control of the benefits system. They have to get ahead of it now. The system has to be overhauled. When I ran the benefits system, we saved £35billion by setting everything up around work, but then they lifted all the checks and balances.'
Senior Tory MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke said: 'These figures show that the system’s completely out of control. It needs a complete overhaul so that it’s robust for the modern age. We have to crack down on benefits. We have to get away from the view that it’s a right to live on benefits rather than it being a helping hand.'
Government Response
A Labour Party government spokeswoman said: 'An individual may have multiple conditions and all are considered during the assessment, though only the primary disabling condition is recorded within this data. We’re fixing the broken system we inherited and have launched the Timms Review to make sure PIP is fit and fair for the future. We are also investing a record £16.1billion in NHS mental health services this year to ensure every person gets the mental health support they need as early as possible. The increase in the PIP caseload has slowed under this government, falling from 400,000 in the 12 months to July 2024, to 270,000 in the 12 months to April 2026.'
