Personal Independence Payment: Terminal Illnesses
(asked on 10th April 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have been assessed at a Personal Independence Payment assessment as having a terminal condition; how many of those people were in receipt of a fixed-term award; and what was the length of these fixed-term awards in each of the latest 12 months for which data is available.
The Department does not collect information centrally for analysis about whether a claimant’s condition is terminal. However, claimants claiming under the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL) are terminally ill and we can provide information about their awards. A PIP claimant is currently regarded as being end of life if they “suffer from a progressive disease, and the person’s death in consequence of that disease can reasonably be expected within 12 months.” [S.82 Welfare Reform Act 2012]
Claims by people with end of life are fast tracked – currently 3 days for new claimants; in the last five years to January 2026, 99% of special rule claims were successful, excluding withdrawn claims. The majority of awards are made for 3 years. The three-year awards given to SREL claims strikes a balance that recognises making a prognosis is not an exact science.
Someone already in receipt of PIP under the normal rules, where there is a wide variety of award lengths, can report a change in their circumstances that they are now terminally ill. This change of circumstances is similarly fast tracked.
The tables below detail the number or SREL claimant assessments for PIP over the last 12 months and fixed-term awards for SREL claimants for the same period.
Table 1: Volume of SREL claimant assessments over time
| Volume |
Feb-25 | 1,500 |
Mar-25 | 1,500 |
Apr-25 | 1,190 |
May-25 | 1,470 |
Jun-25 | 1,870 |
Jul-25 | 1,540 |
Aug-25 | 1,480 |
Sep-25 | 1,510 |
Oct-25 | 1,720 |
Nov-25 | 1,430 |
Dec-25 | 1,390 |
Jan-26 | 1,570 |
Table 2: Volume of SREL fixed-term awards by duration
| Less than 1 year | 1 year to less than 2 years | 2 years to less than 3 years | 3 years to less than 4 years | 4 years to less than 5 years | 5 or more years | Total |
Feb-25 | 10 | X | 20 | 1,220 | 0 | 10 | 1,260 |
Mar-25 | 10 | X | 30 | 1,170 | 0 | X | 1,210 |
Apr-25 | 10 | X | 20 | 970 | X | 10 | 1,010 |
May-25 | 10 | X | 30 | 1,140 | 0 | 20 | 1,200 |
Jun-25 | 20 | X | 40 | 1,470 | X | 10 | 1,540 |
Jul-25 | 20 | X | 20 | 1,220 | 0 | 10 | 1,270 |
Aug-25 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 1,200 | X | 10 | 1,230 |
Sep-25 | 10 | X | 10 | 1,230 | X | 20 | 1,260 |
Oct-25 | 10 | X | 10 | 1,400 | X | 10 | 1,440 |
Nov-25 | 10 | X | 10 | 1,130 | X | X | 1,160 |
Dec-25 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 1,110 | X | X | 1,150 |
Jan-26 | 10 | X | 20 | 1,260 | 0 | X | 1,300 |
Total | 130 | 30 | 240 | 14,510 | 10 | 100 | 15,020 |
Notes:
- Values have been rounded to the nearest 10. Where a value is less than 5 but not 0 it has been replaced by an X for disclosure control.
- Figures are for claimants under DWP Policy Ownership (England, Wales and Abroad) and exclude claimants where PIP has been devolved to the Scottish Government in Scotland or The Department for Communities in Northern Ireland.