ADHD disability benefit claims soar under Labour as more than 100,000 now receive PIP
Personal independence payments (Pip) claims have soared as more than 100,000 people with ADHD receive disability benefits - with no need to look for work.
Over the last two years, the Government approved an average of 40 Pip claims a day for ADHD, official figures revealed.
Claims for the benefit have risen from 71,258 in July 2024 to 100,207 in April this year and has been driven largely by young people.
More than half of those claiming Pip for mental health conditions are between the age of 16 and 24, with nearly two thirds of young people citing ADHD, autism, depression or anxiety as the main disability.
Four in ten Pip claimants for ADHD are currently receiving the top rate of daily living and mobility allowances, worth £194 a week.
This benefit is paid on top of other benefits and there is no requirement to look for work.
Sir Stephen Timms, Disability Minister, is set to publish an interim report on the disability welfare system in days.
The MP for East Ham has suggested the system could be overhauled to encourage more claimants into work and to ensure people stay in employment.
Sir Stephen told the i Paper: "There may well be changes that can be made to enable PIP to do a better job to support people into employment or to stay in employment if they run into a health problem in the course of their working lives."
He added: "That will certainly be one of the points we’ll be considering when we publish our recommendations, which are due in November of this year."
Alan Milburn, the government's adviser on youth unemployment, said there was a "huge welfare problem" at an event organised by the Centre for Social Justice.
Mr Milburn - who previously warned of a "lost generation" shut out of work - said the welfare bill was growing amid a "youth unemployment catastrophe".
The former Health Secretary under Tony Blair said he had held private discussions with potential future Prime Minister Andy Burnham on the issue.
"I’m not going to go into what we discussed privately, but everything I’ve seen from Andy publicly suggests that he knows that welfare reform is absolutely necessary," he added.
Lord Gove, the former Education Secretary, said at the event that schools should be more "rigorous" when diagnosing ADHD - since it may affect their future employment.
He said: "There are a growing number of children who are identified with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. Children who are identified with anxiety and depression. In particular children who are being diagnosed with ADHD.
"In many of those cases, we make excuses and allowances rather than providing support and challenge. And that is particularly acute in the case of ADHD."
A government source told The Times the number of people claiming benefits due to ADHD began before Labour came to power - rising from 25,000 in January 2020 to 70,000 by July 2024.
A government spokesman said: "We inherited a broken welfare system and we are fixing it - a package of measures already coming into effect will save nearly £2 billion by the end of the decade, and the Timms review, working with disabled people and their representative organisations, is looking at how to make Pip fit and fair for the future.
"The increase in the Pip caseload has slowed under this government, falling from 400,000 in the 12 months to July 2024 to 270,000 in the 12 months to April 2026."