Labour's benefits reviewer says current cost of health and disability handouts is 'not a great concern' - despite fears ministers are 'in denial'

By JAMES TAPSFIELD, UK POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 12:33, 9 July 2026 | Updated: 12:39, 9 July 2026 Labour's benefits reviewer insisted the current cost of handouts is 'not a great concern' today. Stephen Timms played down the need for outright cuts to health and disability welfare, despite warnings from the Tories that the Government is 'in denial'. Instead the minister argued that the aim should be to make the system 'financially sustainable' and stop the level increasing 'forever'.  Sir Stephen said he believed there had been a real increase in numbers suffering ill health and disability since Covid, and that was showing through in claims. The Timms review into personal independence payments - PIP - was launched last year after a Labour revolt crushed Keir Starmer's hopes of curbing spending. 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. It is paid regardless of other income or wealth. The latest official figures earlier this year showed the number of people in England and Wales claiming the main disability benefit passed four million for the first time – roughly doubling since 2019. That was partly due to people transferring from other legacy benefits. Stephen Timms played down the need for outright cuts to health and disability welfare, despite warnings from the Tories that the Government is 'in denial' Spending on PIP was around £15billion in 2019-20, had risen to around £26billion by 2024-25, and is forecast to rise to more than £41billion by the end of the decade. The Treasury's OBR watchdog has estimated that overall spending on health and disability benefits will rise from £76.9billion in 2024-25 to £109.8billion in 2030-31.  Releasing his interim report, Sir Stephen said his team wants to 'come up with a better process', adding that 'for many people, PIP has become a barrier to participation, which is the opposite of what's intended'. He told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: 'Because people worry that if they do participate, (the Government) will come along and say, 'So you can do things after all', and take their benefit away.' The review noted that while PIP 'enables many people to stay in work', research also 'demonstrates that some people are scared to participate, either in physical activities or employment, as this could be seen as evidence that their functional ability has improved'. Sir Stephen told Today the system 'hasn't kept up with our changing understanding of disability and ill health over the 13 years since it was first introduced, so we do think fundamental change is needed and we'll be making our recommendations for change in the autumn'. Asked if his team would come up with recommendations which would cut the number of people on PIP, Sir Stephen said: 'Well, we'll need to wait and see what our recommendations are.' Sir Stephen insisted costs had to be 'financially sustainable', but said: 'My view is the current level of spending is not a great concern. 'What would be a concern would be if it carried on going up forever more, and that we have to address, and we will be doing so.' Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately has accused Labour of being 'in denial about the seriousness of the situation with our welfare system and the fact that we have to make savings'. Sir Stephen said his team's terms of reference 'do require us to stick within the currently projected envelope for spending on PIP', but 'don't require us to make savings'. He said: 'Financial sustainability of the system is a concern. It's a concern to our steering group. We want the vital support that PIP provides to be there for the long term, and it won't be if it gets more and more expensive inexorably.' The Timms report said PIP claimants often find the system to apply for the benefit 'dehumanising', 'soul destroying' and 'degrading'. The review team said the recommendations will be 'bold in nature and bold in recognition of the wider environment in which disabled people in the UK are living' as it concluded 'while PIP is widely valued as a benefit, it is no longer fit for purpose'. Asked this week about the rise in claimants with conditions such as ADHD, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said he had told the Timms review panel it must consider 'whether the assessment process is today really fit for the range of conditions, and the rise in the reports of some conditions that have been reported compared to when it was conceived 13 years ago'. He added that he had suggested the panellists should be 'ambitious' in their recommendations, and that he is 'pretty confident that that whole question of the assessment and different conditions will be quite central to their work'. There were 4.01million PIP claimants in April 2026, according to DWP data published in June. Of those, 1.56million – 39 per cent – were listed as having psychiatric disorders, the highest proportion for any type of disability. Some 258,539 claimants were classed as having autistic spectrum disorders, more than double the 103,414 in April 2020. A further 435,330 claimants had mixed anxiety and depressive disorders, up from 214,119 in April 2020, while 100,207 had the hyperkinetic disorders ADHD or ADD, up from 28,740. The second most common type of disability among claimants was general musculoskeletal diseases, which applied to 752,799 people, or 19 per cent of the total. The Timms report noted that numbers reporting mental health conditions and autism have 'increased significantly' since 2009, the period pre-2013 before disability living allowance (DLA) was replaced by PIP. It said in contrast to this rise, the number of people reporting the two main musculoskeletal conditions of back pain and arthritis had risen 'only slowly', likely to have been driven by an ageing society and broader demographic changes. But the report said demographics 'do not obviously explain the trends in the mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions'. The Treasury's OBR watchdog has forecast that health and disability spending will keep rising as a proportion of GDP Teenagers and young adults continue to account for a growing proportion of those receiving PIP, with 16.6 per cent of claimants in April aged 16-29, up from 14.3 per cent in April 2020. While there has been a similar rise for the 30-44 age group – which accounted for 20.9 per cent in April, up from 18.7 per cent in 2020 – there has been a fall in the proportion of claimants aged 45 to 59, at 28.9 per cent of claimants in April, down from 36 per cent. The figure for 60 to 74-year-olds was 31.1 per cent, broadly unchanged from 31 per cent in 2020.