The DWP will increase PIP benefits from April (Image: Getty)
Though the future of PIP has often been put under scrutiny as part of plans to slash cash from Britain’s ballooning welfare bill, for the time being the payments for people who struggle with chronic health conditions remains in place and is being increased from Monday, April 6 by up to £375.20 per year.
The Department for Work and Pensions still offers payments for PIP as it always has, despite talk of reductions in the benefit in future, and from Monday, April 6, the monthly payments will be increased to account for inflation, from £812 a month to £834.26 a month, up to a total of £10,119.20 a year for someone claiming the maximum allowances for both of the two elements of PIP.
The DWP will hand out the boost from April 6 to increase the amount paid to people claiming PIP, for those battling health conditions considered eligible for the payment after an assessment.
It means that if you have a health condition or disability that affects your daily life, you could see benefits totalling a maximum of £114.60 a week for daily living costs and £80 a week for mobility costs.
Eligibility for the benefit depends on an assessment. Despite many tabloid headlines about ‘full lists’ of conditions for PIP, there is no set list of conditions guaranteed to qualify you for PIP benefits, though some conditions are more likely to be successful than others.
To be eligible for PIP, you need to have a health condition or disability that has caused problems with daily living or getting around (or both) for three months. The problems must be expected to continue for at least another nine months and you need to stay in the UK.
From April 6, the standard rate for daily living will be £76.70 per week, up from £73.90 per week, while the enhanced rate will be £114.60 per week, up from £110.40 per week.
The standard rate for mobility will be raised from £29.20 per week to £30.30.
And the enhanced rate for mobility will be increased from £77.05 per week to £80.00 a week.
That means someone claiming the higher rate of both elements can get £194.60 per week, which is £10,119.20 per year, or £843.26 per month, from April, a rise of £375.20 per year.
Plans by the Government to change the eligibility criteria for the payments had to be put on hold last year, after a rebellion by MPs in the House of Commons. Work and pensions minister Sir Stephen Timms instead launched a review into PIP, which is expected to report this autumn.
Some 3.93 million people in England and Wales were claiming personal independence payments in January 2026, according to data published on Tuesday by the DWP. This is up by 233,080, or 6%, from 3.69 million a year earlier.
The number of claimants has almost doubled since comparable figures began seven years ago in January 2019, when the total stood at 2.05 million. Any changes to the eligibility criteria for PIP have been postponed until after the Timms review takes place, ministers have promised.
The Government said the review aims to ensure PIP is “fair and fit for the future”.
It has announced a steering group of 12 experts with lived experience of disability, long-term health conditions or direct experience of working within disabled people’s organisations.
They will work alongside Sir Stephen and two other co-chairs of the review, Sharon Brennan and Dr Clenton Farquharson, both of whom have lived experience of disability.