PIP claimants are more likely to be rejected in some UK areas, claims Amelia (Image: Cool Crutches & Walking Sticks)
PIP claimants in three UK areas are losing as much as £9,583 each per year because of an apparent postcode lottery on denied claims.
A new analysis of has found that applications for the weekly cash payments for those who need help with daily living or mobility are three times more likely to be successful in some areas of the UK than others.
The analysis, by Cool Crutches & Walking Sticks, said that in data obtained from gov.uk, about 300,000 PIP claims were rejected in 2024, with one three UK areas topping the list for refusals.
Birmingham was the UK area named the least likely to secure PIP benefits, with 8,240 rejections when looking at both new claims and reassessments in 2024, followed by Manchester with 4,212 denials and then Leeds with 4,196.
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For purely new claims, London was top of the rejections with 44,155, while the North West was second at 42,734 and the South East third with 34,408.
Disability advocate, and co-founder of , Amelia Peckham, is eager for claims to be made easier, as analysis discovered over 300,000 claims were rejected in 2024.
During a girls’ holiday in Scotland, Amelia was involved in a quad bike accident at 19 years old, where she was thrown into the air after hitting a pothole. The resulting spinal injury, which her doctor likened to a meringue being smashed with a hammer, left her bedridden for months and permanently reliant on mobility aids.
Amelia attended her reassessment alone, due to her husband looking after their sick children, but felt this along with using a table to stand up instead of her crutch got her marked down.
Amelia said: “PIP applications are notoriously long and complicated, by the time you reach the interview stage you’ve already completed days of work to gather the information required. In my experience the interview was designed to try and trip me up, to catch me out, and intentionally question every element of my disability.
“As the least fraudulently claimed benefit, with a zero percent fraud rate, it is staggering to hear how many negative experiences are happening. My personal experience was soul-destroying, it undermined my disability, and experience and genuinely compromised both my physical and mental health for years afterward.
“We need a system that is better at screening, that separates different disabilities and accommodates them. One size doesn’t fit all and it’s key the nuances in disability are accommodated with nuances in applications, interviews, and decisions.”
PIP is paid in two parts, a daily living part and a mobility part.
For daily living, you may get the money if you need help preparing food, eating and drinking, managing your medicine, using the toilet, undressing or dressing or several other day to day tasks.
For the mobility part, you may be entitled to if you need help physically moving around or leaving your home.
If you qualified for both the daily living and mobility parts and were paid the higher rate for both, £108.55 per week for living and £75.75 for mobility, you would get up to £9,583 per year.
This week, health and sickness benefits were put back into the spotlight after Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall’s comments.
She said some people on benefits are “taking the mickey” but “there are many more people who want to work”.
Liz Kendall’s comments come as a report from the Department of Work and Pensions () found 49% of health and disability benefits recipients reported feeling they would never be able to work or work again, of which 66% felt their health was likely to get worse in the future.
Ms Kendall told : “I think what the survey shows today is that despite all the myths, a lot of people who are currently on sickness or disability benefits want to work.”
Asked if people on benefits are “pretending they can’t work” she added: “Many of them have either just lost jobs that they desperately miss, or really want to get back into to work once they’ve got their health condition under control.
“So I think that there are many more people who want to work. I have no doubt, as there always have been, there are people who shouldn’t be on those benefits who are taking the mickey and that is not good enough – we have to end that.”
The Work Aspirations of Health and Disability Claimants report was based on a survey of 3,401 health and disability benefit recipients, including those receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), and those on the Universal Credit (UC) Health Journey.