Benefits and statutory pay
DWP to raise in-person PIP assessments from 6% to 30%
The DWP is raising PIP assessments held in person from 6% to 30%, and most new awards for claimants aged 25 and over run three years before review.
30% Assessments in person
The Department for Work and Pensions plans to put far more disability benefit claimants in front of an assessor in person. The DWP says face-to-face assessments for Personal Independence Payment are “increasing from 6% in 2024 (57,000) to 30% of all assessments”. For the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), which decides whether a Universal Credit claimant is treated as having limited capability for work, the rise is “from 12% in 2024 (74,000) to 30%”.
No rate is changing. What changes is how often people are seen in person, and how long an award runs before anyone looks at it again.
The date matters here. This was announced on 18 December 2025, not this month. What happened on 11 September 2026 is that the DWP corrected its own page: “face-to-face assessments for Work Capability Assessment (WCA) in 2024 was 12%, rather than 13%”. That is the only correction logged, and the PIP figure was not part of it.
For PIP, 30% is five times the 2024 proportion. It also means 94% of PIP assessments in 2024 were not face-to-face — and that is not the same as being done by telephone or video. The DWP’s own assessment guide tells health professionals to use a paper-based review “in cases where they believe there is sufficient evidence to do so”, with no consultation at all.
Reviews move the other way. The DWP says the gap between award reviews “can be as short as nine months and most people do not see a change in their award at their review”. That is to be extended “for the majority of PIP claimants aged 25 and over to a minimum of three years for a new claim, rising to 5 years at their next review if they remain entitled”. The page describes the longer gap only for that group and says nothing at all about claimants under 25.
The £1.9 billion is a saving by the end of 2030/31, and the department attributes it to a package rather than to the in-person switch alone: the WCA backlog “is to be significantly reduced through a package of measures that will reduce UK welfare spending by £1.9 billion by the end of 2030/31”. The changes “will take effect from April 2026” — a date that has now passed. The department does not say when the 30% share is reached.
What this is not. It does not cut a PIP rate, and it does not change the daily living or mobility criteria. Those sit with the separate Timms Review of PIP, whose co-chairs published a progress update on 9 September 2026 with an annex of emerging recommendations. That review has not reported. Its task “over the coming weeks is to test whether the emerging recommendations are fair, workable and capable of improving people’s experience of PIP”, before the steering group agrees its final recommendations to the Secretary of State and moves “towards our final report later this autumn”.
A face-to-face assessment is still not automatic. The DWP says it will “continue to ensure there are always adjustments for those who are unable to attend appointments face-to-face as a result of their disability or health condition, with providers offering home visits or alternative delivery channels where appropriate”. That is a stated commitment rather than a right written into regulations, and it is the sentence worth quoting back if an appointment is set somewhere you cannot travel to.
Two things follow for anyone on PIP or heading for a WCA. An award set now may not be revisited for three years, which makes the evidence sent at the start carry much further than it used to — a condition that worsens in year two is a change of circumstances to report, not something a review will pick up. And an in-person appointment is more likely than it was, so travel, timing and any adjustment you need are worth settling before a letter lands rather than after.
Where these figures come from
- Reforms to welfare system set to save £1.9 billion by the end of 2030/31 — Department for Work and Pensions
- The Timms Review: co-chair update, September 2026 — Department for Work and Pensions
Every figure traces to a dated document — the line this section is named after. If one here is wrong, tell us and it gets fixed publicly. Work out your own figures.