One in six working-age people receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP) report no extra costs linked to their disability, according to a Resolution Foundation report on PIP reform published on 15 October 2026. The think tank says a redesigned system that matched cash support to real costs could save up to £4.4 billion a year while working better for claimants, and recommends adding new forms of non-cash help.
The report, Hard truths: Rethinking Personal Independence Payment, by Lindsay Judge and Louise Murphy, draws on a new survey of more than 2,500 working-age PIP recipients. It arrives as the government awaits the final report of the Timms Review into the benefit, which covers England and Wales.
What the Resolution Foundation found
The Foundation, which focuses on living standards for low- and middle-income households, reports that most recipients value the benefit: 85% of those aged 16 to 64 said their award lets them do at least one economically valuable or wellbeing-enhancing activity, rising to 96% among 16 to 24-year-olds. But it says the system is failing in several ways:
- Cost: working-age disability benefit spending in England and Wales is projected to rise from £14.4 billion in 2019 to £34.5 billion by 2030-31, in current prices.
- Decisions: since 2013, 16% of all decisions refusing PIP have eventually been overturned in the claimant’s favour.
- Reviews: in 2025-26 there were 216,000 late reviews of existing awards, compared with virtually none before the pandemic.
- Targeting: 16% of recipients report no extra disability costs. Among 16 to 24-year-olds, 21% report little limitation and no extra costs.
Why cutting by condition would not work
The report argues that medical conditions are a poor guide to need. Most recipients have several conditions: 31% report depression, for example, but only 2% report it as their only condition. Fewer than 1% report only ADHD, anxiety or autism. People with ADHD (89%) and anxiety (87%) were almost as likely to report extra costs as those with back pain (93%) or arthritis (94%). Proposals to exclude particular conditions would therefore save little, the authors conclude.
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The Resolution Foundation’s PIP reform proposals
- Keep a test of how a condition affects daily functioning at the heart of PIP, but also ask claimants directly about their extra costs and what would help them take part in society.
- Split awards into three parts: an ongoing cash payment, a capped one-off payment for aids and home adaptations, and a participation element, usually delivered through local services.
- Replace infrequent, high-stakes assessments with lighter, more frequent check-ins tailored to each person’s condition.
Removing cash payments from claimants without extra costs, around 670,000 people on the 2029-30 caseload, could save up to £4.4 billion a year, it estimates. Lindsay Judge, the Foundation’s research director, said: “There is no perfect system of disability support.” She argued that a system better attuned to multiple and fluctuating conditions would target help where it is needed and avoid waste where it is not.
What other researchers say
The Institute for Fiscal Studies examined similar options in its October 2026 Green Budget. It found the share of 16 to 64-year-olds claiming disability benefits rose from 5.5% in August 2019 to 8.2% in August 2025, and that 51% of PIP claimants say they cannot afford five or more of 21 basic essentials, compared with 15% of people without disabilities.
Like the Resolution Foundation, the IFS concluded that restricting PIP by type of condition would save less than headline figures suggest, because many claimants have both mental and physical diagnoses. It estimated that means-testing PIP through Universal Credit would save £8.2 billion before people changed their behaviour, but would weaken work incentives. The Timms Review has indicated it will recommend keeping PIP free of means-testing, the IFS noted.
In its pre-Budget briefing on 13 October, the Resolution Foundation itself warned that disability benefit reforms should not be rushed into the Budget.
How disability groups responded
Disability campaigners questioned the findings, the Big Issue reported. Disability Rights UK agreed the system needs reform but said it was “very concerned” about any move away from PIP as a fully cash benefit, and questioned the 16% figure, saying many disabled people do not think of costs such as higher energy bills as disability costs. Mencap’s chief executive, Jon Sparkes, said the survey did not match the charity’s own research on how people with a learning disability use PIP.
What the government says
The 28 October Budget left PIP reform to the Timms process. The Budget document says the government takes seriously the Timms Review’s interim finding that PIP is “no longer fit for purpose”, and that it will respond to the Timms and Milburn reviews before the end of the year, followed by a White Paper early in 2027 and legislation later that year.
For background on the wider debate, see Westferry Times’ earlier pieces on how benefit claims compare with 20 years ago and the rise in mental health-related claims.
Sources: Resolution Foundation, Hard truths: Rethinking Personal Independence Payment (15 October 2026); Resolution Foundation, PIP reform that better matches payments to costs and needs could save money (15 October 2026); Institute for Fiscal Studies, The IFS Green Budget: October 2026, chapter 7 (October 2026); Big Issue, New report calls for cuts to ‘vital’ PIP benefit (16 October 2026); Resolution Foundation, pre-Budget press release (13 October 2026); HM Treasury, Budget 2026 (28 October 2026).
