Some 4 million people now claim the main disability benefit in England and Wales, latest figures show – as fears grow about the size of Britain’s ballooning welfare bill.

New data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) showed there were 4 million claimants entitled to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) at the end of April.

This was a 2 per cent increase in the PIP caseload in England and Wales from the end of January this year.

Of the 4 million PIP claimants, 3.3 million (83 per cent) were of working age and 680,000 (17 per cent) were of state pension age. Meanwhile, 37 per cent of claimants received the highest level of award – the same level as in January.

PIP is intended to help with everyday tasks and extra living costs if someone has a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability.

The latest DWP figures were published after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch offered to lend her party’s votes to the Government to push through welfare reform.

She said she would work with whoever is Labour prime minister – whether Keir Starmer or leadership rival Andy Burnham – to slash the benefits bill in order to boost defence spending.

Mrs Badenoch tore into Sir Keir over the Government’s shambolic Defence Investment Plan (DIP), which has been delayed again amid a funding row within Whitehall.

New data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) showed there were 4 million claimants entitled to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) at the end of April

Keir Starmer is under pressure to slash Britain’s ballooning benefits bill in order to boost defence spending

John Healey quit as defence secretary last week as he fumed at Sir Keir for being ‘unable’ to find the billions of pounds needed to properly fund the DIP, while he claimed Chancellor Rachel Reeves was ‘unwilling’ to do so.

The Government last year attempted to restrict access to PIP by tightening the rules, but Sir Keir was forced to abandon the changes due to a huge Labour revolt.

Messages sent by Pat McFadden, who is now Work and Pensions Secretary, to Peter Mandelson at the time showed how he complained Labour MPs just wanted to know ‘who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others’.

The messages from June 2025, shortly before the Government caved in to Labour rebels on the planned welfare changes, were published as part of a large tranche of files related to Lord Mandelson’s time as US ambassador.

Since PIP was first introduced in April 2013 – to replace the previous Disability Living Allowance (DLA) – until April this year, there have been 4.6 million successful PIP claims, according to the latest DWP figures.

Of the total 9.7 million PIP claims registered over the same period, of which 4.5 million were disallowed, 7.5 million were new claims and 2.2 million were DLA reassessment claims.

The DWP said there was a gradual increase in the total number of people with entitlement to either PIP or DLA, from 3 million to 3.5 million, between February 2013 and February 2020.

There was a sharper increase from 3.5 million to 5.3 million between February 2020, when the Covid crisis began, and November 2025, it added.

The Tories pointed to figures showing an extra 430,000 people were claiming PIP since Labour came to power at the 2024 general election.

Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: ‘Labour have let a sickness benefit crisis spiral out of control.

‘We have a system that’s too quick to write people off and too slow to help them into work – and which is costing us a fortune at a time when we must boost Britain’s defences.

‘Instead of helping them into work and independence, our welfare state is signing them off and parking them on benefits. Labour’s answer to every problem is to spend more of taxpayer’s money and duck the difficult decisions.

‘The Conservatives will review the entire PIP system, remove eligibility for low-level mental health PIP claims, rapidly assess hundreds of thousands of additional claims, and get Britain working again.’

A DWP spokesperson said: ‘We’re fixing the broken system we inherited by creating a welfare state that works for disabled people and taxpayers and have launched the Timms Review – co-produced with disabled people and their representative organisations – to make sure PIP is fit and fair for the future.

‘We’re also delivering on our commitment to increase face-to-face assessments from 12 per cent to 30 per cent, which fell sharply under the previous government.

‘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.’