Nearly a third of working-age adults currently get personal independence payments (PIP) in parts of England, analysis shows.
MailOnline’s audit of Government figures – presented in an interactive map below – names the PIP capital as a suburb of Plymouth.
Neighbourhoods within Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Stockton-on-Tees have similarly high rates.
Critics of Labour‘s ballooning £143billion welfare bill said the figures should act as a ‘wake up call’ for the Government.
The analysis comes after Keir Starmer completed a humiliating backtrack on his flagship welfare reforms package at the eleventh hour, following sustained pressure from over 120 MPs.
The initial package of reforms was mooted to save around £5billion by the end of the Parliament and included a restriction on the eligibility for PIP.
Existing claimants were to be given a 13-week phase-out period of financial support in an earlier move that was seen as a bid to head off opposition by aiming to soften the impact of the changes.
It’s understood now that around 370,000 existing PIP claimants will be able to keep their payments.
But the change on Personal Independence Payment (Pip) is estimated to wipe up to £2billion off the £5billion savings by the end of the Parliament, and Universal Credit tweaks another £1billion.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is odds-on to hike taxes to pay for the financial shortfall, experts have said.
If the legislation clears its first hurdle on Tuesday, it will then face a few hours’ examination by all MPs the following week – rather than days or weeks in front of a committee tasked with looking at the Bill.
Anyone with a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability that affects their day-to-day life can get PIP, including adults in full-time employment.
Latest Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics show 3.7million people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland currently receive it. This is up from around 2m before Covid struck.
The number of young people aged 16-24 receiving PIP has also skyrocketed, as too have claims for anxiety and depression.
PIP is split into two parts and claimants can be eligible for both. The daily living part goes to adults needing help with everyday tasks, whereas the mobility part is doled out to those who require assistance getting around.
Whether they get one or both parts and how much they get depends on how difficult they find everyday tasks and getting around.
Anyone nearing the end of life such as from a life-limiting illness will automatically get the daily living part – but the mobility part depends on their needs.
Adults undergoing PIP assessments are scored on a scale of zero to 12 – based on how difficult they find everyday tasks such as preparing and eating food.
Currently, someone who receives between eight and 11 points in total gets the daily living part of PIP at a standard rate, worth £73.90 per week.
If they get at least 12 points, they get the daily living component at an enhanced rate, worth £110.40 a week.
Under current rules, an applicant needs to be scored at least eight points in any combination to be awarded the lowest rate of PIP.
If the package passes, they would need this to have scored four of these points in a single activity.
MailOnline’s analysis found the Victoria Park area of Plymouth to be the PIP capital.
In that particular district, almost 32.5 per cent (1,336) of its 3,940 working-age adults receive the handout.
Victoria Park was followed by Byker East in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (31.8 per cent) and the Central Stockton & Portrack region of Stockton-on-Tees (30.5 per cent).
Our investigation revealed the rate stood above 20 per cent in 58 of 7,200 MSOAs – tiny communities across England home to around 5,000 people.
Some of the criteria for the Pip assessment under the ‘washing and bathing’ section
All but four of these neighbourhoods were in the north.
The DWP uses out-of-date 2011 boundaries for its benefits data, but the ONS uses 2021 boundaries for its population figures.
To get correct figures for the current geographies, we have had to convert these to 2021 boundaries, which could lead to discrepancies in the calculations.
John O’Connell, chief executive, at the TaxPayers’ Alliance told MailOnline: ‘These figures should be a wake up call for this government.
‘When nearly one in three working-age adults in some areas are on disability benefits, its clear that something has gone badly wrong.
‘PIP must be reformed to support those in genuine need, rather than becoming an easily accessible income stream.’
Our investigation involved analysing DWP data on the number of working-age adults claiming benefits in all 7,200 MSOAs.
We then compared these figures with the ONS’s latest estimates of the working age (16 to 64) population in these areas, allowing us to calculate a percentage.
Government data is still collected via 2011 boundaries set by the Census. MailOnline has converted it to the 2021 boundaries.
