People suffering from acne, obesity and writer’s cramp getting almost £10,000 a year in disability benefits as Keir Starmer tries to push through cuts

People are being handed disability benefits worth up to £10,000 a year – including a car – because they are suffering from acne, old age and even writer’s cramp, a new analysis has revealed.

The number of people receiving the enhanced mobility rate personal independence payments (PIP) has shot up in the past six years, from 734,136 in January 2019 to 1.75 million people in April this year.

People in receipt of this payment – worth up to £187 a week, can use it to lease a brand new car, mobility scooter or electric wheelchair through the Motability Scheme, often with no deposit required.

The largest increase in recipients uncovered by the Taxpayers’ Alliance’s analysis were for autism, anxiety and depression.

But it also found people are being handed the cash for afflictions including obesity, alcohol and drug misuse and factitious disorders – neurological conditions where people fake or exaggerate physical illness.

The analysis comes as Sir Keir Starmer faces a battle to bring in changes to disability benefits designed to make them harder to claim so more people move back into work.

Dozens of MPs are vowing to defy the PM in the Commons this evening despite him already having humiliatingly weakened the package of benefits curbs. 

Ministers had agreed that no current Personal Independence Payment (Pip) or Universal Credit health element claimant would be worse off from the changes.

People are being handed disability benefits worth up to £10,000 a year – including a car – because they are suffering from acne, old age and even writer’s cramp, a new analysis has revealed.

It also found people are being handed the cash for afflictions including obesity, alcohol and drug misuse and factitious disorders – neurological conditions where people fake illness.

That reduced the planned savings from £5billion to £2.5billion by the end of the decade – taking a wrecking ball to Rachel Reeves’ hopes of balancing the books without more tax rises. 

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It’s as clear as night follows day from our new benefits dashboard that the benefits system is being significantly abused.

‘While England is a sicker country than it was before the pandemic, the size of the increases for many of these conditions surely cannot be believed by even the most gullible of MPs.

The TA analysis of DWP figures found that in April six people were receiving enhanced pip because of writer’s cramp and five for acne, both up from 0 in 2019. 

Some 5,817 were getting the cash because they had an alcohol problem, up from 1,443, and 1,635 for drug misuse, up from 299.

There were 923 people getting enhanced PIP to help them alleviate the impact of their IBS, up from 190.

And 2,346 got the cash because they were obese, up from 1,228. 

While many of these numbers are low they raise questions about the vigorousness of the assessment process for PIP. 

The analysis comes as Sir Keir Starmer faces a battle to bring in changes to disability benefits designed to make them harder to claim so more people move back into work.

Even under the government’s initial proposals the disability and health benefits bill was expected to keep rising.

But a rebel ringleader, Debbie Abrahams, said a promised review of the system had not been honoured by the government – warning she might now oppose the legislation.

Labour MPs lined up in the Commons to urged Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall to withdraw the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill altogether.

DWP estimates that the latest proposals would still push 150,000 extra people into poverty by 2030 angered many, even though it was lower than the 250,000 envisaged in the original plans.

The Tories have confirmed they will vote against the Bill, despite supporting a welfare spending crackdown.

That opens the door to Sir Keir’s massive majority of 166 being overturned – although most believe the government will scrape through.