Spending on disability benefits for anxiety and depression has doubled since the pandemic, with mental health conditions overtaking arthritis as the biggest driver of costs.
Official figures show that £3.4 billion was spent last year on personal independence payments (PIPs) to claimants for anxiety and depression, one sixth of total spending on the main disability benefit.
Spending on disability benefits for mental health has increased faster than overall costs, with anxiety and depression now costing £800 million a year more than arthritis, which was the most expensive condition in 2021.
The fastest increase has been in payments for ADHD, which have almost tripled since 2019 to £393 million, while the cost of other conditions such as pain, breathing problems and cancer have increased by about 60 per cent.
Claims for learning disabilities and autism cost £1.7 billion and £1.3 billion respectively, with back pain and chronic pain the only other categories costing more than £1 billion.
More detailed figures for individual conditions also show that disability benefit payments for stress cost £317 million in 2023-24, obsessive compulsive disorder £56 million, headaches £45 million, eating disorders £43 million and obesity £25 million.
The breakdown, published for the first time by the Department for Work and Pensions, will intensify political debate about welfare reform after Sir Keir Starmer provoked a Labour backlash by cost-cutting reforms that will make it harder to claim PIP.
• Spending on disability benefits to soar by 2030 despite cuts
The Conservatives planned to stop those with anxiety and depression from claiming PIP, arguing that everyday problems had been over-medicalised. Labour has rejected this, but government sources acknowledge that reforms requiring PIP claimants to be suffering more serious impairments with everyday tasks, such as washing and dressing, are in part aimed at cutting payments to those with milder mental health problems.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, argued this week that “we are massively over-diagnosing those with mental illness problems”, arguing that this was “creating class of victims in Britain that will struggle ever to get out of it” as they were pushed towards a life on benefits.
However, Nil Guzelgun of the mental health charity Mind said that “rather than being too easy to access, the more likely reason for more people with mental health problems receiving PIP is that the nation is facing a mental health crisis”.
Long NHS waiting times were leaving people’s conditions to worsen, she argued. “We also know more people are experiencing severe deprivation since the pandemic, with high inflation and rising housing costs eroding real incomes.
“Poverty and mental health problems need to be addressed together. The government must
stop the planned benefit cuts and make sure that people get the vital support they need,
including mental health treatment.”
PIP was introduced a decade ago and rising claims initially reflected a shift from older benefits, but there has been a noticeable increase in claims since Covid.
Tom Pollard of the New Economics Foundation, a think tank, said: “We know from a range of sources, including NHS data, that there has been a significant increase in people reporting and seeking support for mental health problems, particularly since the pandemic. The category ‘anxiety and depression’ represents a broad range of experiences, many of which will be more severe and debilitating than people may imagine.”
He argued that many claiming primarily for a mental health condition would also suffer from other physical conditions. “Many people will have been living with disabilities and health conditions for some time, but will have only applied for PIP when financial insecurity pushed them to do so,” he said.
About 1.6 million disabled people now report struggles to afford food, up more than 600,000 since the pandemic, while one in four Britons now describe themselves as having a disability.
“The rising PIP caseload therefore needs to be understood as a consequence of both worsening health and increasing hardship,” Pollard said.
