{"id":126456,"date":"2026-10-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/?p=126456"},"modified":"2026-10-05T01:44:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T00:44:02","slug":"dwp-benefit-award-shake-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/dwp-benefit-award-shake-up\/","title":{"rendered":"DWP Benefit Award Shake-Up Could See Approvals Fall by 70%"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Policy Exchange report has proposed substantially tightening eligibility for Child Disability Living Allowance<\/strong> for children whose main conditions are learning difficulties, behavioural disorders or hyperkinetic syndrome. Under its most restrictive model, revised criteria would limit eligibility to 30% of current acceptance levels while returning average awards for those conditions to their pre-pandemic distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal comes as the number of children receiving DLA in England and Wales has risen from 314,000 in 2010 to 915,000 in the first quarter of 2026. According to the Policy Exchange research note, the annual cost of Child DLA increased from \u00a32.3bn in 2019\/20 to \u00a35.3bn in 2025\/26, with official forecasts putting spending at \u00a38.3bn by 2030\/31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Report Links Recent Growth to Three Groups of Claims<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Child DLA is a non-means-tested, tax-free benefit intended to support children with additional care or mobility needs. Eligibility <\/strong>is determined by how a disability affects care and mobility rather than by diagnosis alone. The care component is paid at three rates, while the mobility component has two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Policy Exchange<\/a>, much of the recent expansion has been concentrated in three categories: learning difficulties, behavioural disorders and hyperkinetic syndrome. Of the 915,000 children receiving DLA in early 2026, the report says 404,000 claims for these conditions had been added since the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2010, claims classified as learning difficulties have risen by 279,000, behavioural disorder claims by 251,000 and hyperkinetic syndrome claims by 60,000. Claims covering all other disabling conditions fell by 12,000 over the same period, to 126,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report also argues that the increase in DLA claims has outpaced changes in diagnosed prevalence. Between 2019\/20 and 2024\/25, it says the prevalence of learning difficulties among people aged 0 to 17 increased by 35%, while DLA claims associated with learning difficulties rose by 55%. Diagnosed ADHD prevalence increased by 82%, while claims for behavioural disorders and hyperkinetic syndrome rose by 177%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Award levels have shifted too. The share of claimants <\/a>in the three categories receiving the highest care rate increased after 2019\/20, while the proportion receiving no mobility component declined. According to the report, 97.6% of claimants in these categories receive one of the two highest care rates, and 85% receive a mobility component.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
DWP child DLA awards surge for three conditions \u00a9Shutterstock<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Policy Exchange Proposes Tighter Criteria and Redirected Spending<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Policy Exchange recommends revised eligibility criteria for new assessments and reassessments involving the three categories<\/strong>, while leaving other disabling conditions unchanged. It also proposes stricter criteria at each award level so that the average award for those categories returns to its 2019\/20 level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors model three options under which eligibility would be restricted to 50%, 40% or 30% of current acceptance levels. They estimate four-year gross savings of \u00a38.8bn, \u00a310.4bn and \u00a311.9bn respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the 30% model, annual savings would rise from \u00a31.3bn in 2027\/28 to \u00a34.5bn in 2030\/31. The report proposes using one third of the savings in 2030\/31, or \u00a31.5bn, for services including an additional \u00a31bn for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, \u00a3300m for family hubs and \u00a3200m for parental support programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BirminghamLive<\/a> reported that Jean-Andr\u00e9 Prager, one of the report\u2019s authors, is also a member of the DWP Timms Review steering group. The report itself describes Prager as a Policy Exchange senior fellow specialising in welfare reform and a former special adviser for the Department for Work and Pensions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new report is urging the DWP to tighten award rules for three rapidly growing claim categories. The proposed changes could significantly reduce successful applications while redirecting part of the projected savings into other forms of support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":126459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126456"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126460,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126456\/revisions\/126460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}