The proportion of child disability living allowance (DLA ) claimants who are refused an award when they are reassessed for personal independence payment (PIP) after reaching age 16 has doubled in the last two years, figures obtained by Benefits and Work reveal. There has been no change in benefits rules to account for the change.
Benefits and Work is currently creating a guide to child DLA to PIP reassessments and, as part of this process, we have been examining statistics using the DWP’s statxplore tool.
These reveal that in the quarter August to October 2023, 11.3% of reassessments resulted in no award due to the claimant failing the assessment.
In the quarter August to October 2025 – the most recent period that figures are available for – the failure rate had leapt to 23.2%, more than double.
Success rates where the claimant gets a higher award of money under PIP than they did under DLA have also fallen.
In the quarter to October 2023, 68.5% of claimants saw an increase in their award.
In the quarter to October 2025, this had fallen to 54.3%.
The detailed figures for the most recent quarter are:
- Award increased 54.3%
- Award unchanged 10.5%
- Award decreased 5.9%
- Disallowed due to failing assessment 23.2%
- Disallowed due to failing to attend assessment 0.6%
- Disallowed due to failing to return part 2 of the PIP form within the time limit 5.6%
We are currently working on a new Benefits and Work guide to help members who are supporting a child to make the move from DLA to PIP and we need your help! Your experiences (positive and negative) of this process will help us shape our guide and address common questions about the move.
Please do share your thoughts and experiences using our survey. The survey is completely anonymous, we don't collect any of your personal details, but we may publish some of the results and some of your comments.
You can access the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DXH9PSM
Please consider sharing the link if you are a member of a group, forum or site where users might have experiences that would help.
