The proportion of new personal independence payment (PIP) claims that result in an award has continued to fall, according to the latest DWP statistics. But the number of claimants being put through a planned award review of their PIP has dropped dramatically.
The latest figures cover the quarter to July 2026.
They show that the number of new claims for PIP has risen by 17% compared to last year. There has also been a 25% increase in change of circumstances registrations and a 7% increase in DLA reassessments.
But there has been a huge drop in the number of PIP planned award reviews begun by the DWP, falling by 71% compared to last year.
The success rate for new PIP claims was just 34%, down from 41% in July 2025.
For claims that got as far as an assessment, the success rate was 42%, down from 48% in July 2025.
For DLA to PIP reassessments, the success rate was up by one percentage point to 73% for all claims and unchanged at 77% for claims that got as far as an assessment.
It now takes 18 weeks on average for a new PIP claim to be decided, up from 15 weeks a year ago. The DWP notes that there are variations between regions due to “differing levels of available assessment capacity”, but does not say where the capacity problems are occurring or what is causing them.
There were 86,000 mandatory reconsiderations registered in the quarter, a 19% increase, with the success rate unchanged at 26%.
On average, the clearance time for mandatory reconsiderations was 45 days for new claims and 46 days for DLA reassessments.
