Health Benefits Claims Increased by 38 Percent Since Pandemic, Says Report

Health-related benefits claims among working-age people have risen by 38 percent since the COVID-19 pandemic, a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found. The IFS report published Thursday said the number of people claiming incapacity and disability benefits in England and Wales rose from 2.8 million (7.5 percent of the working-age population) in 2019/2020 to 3.9 million (10 percent) in 2023/2024. The think tank said this equates to a real term increase in health-related benefits from £36 billion to £48 billion—up by one third—with researchers saying that official forecasts expect this spending to increase further to £63 billion in 2028/2029. Increases occurred in every local authority, apart from the City of London, but the growth in claims had been fastest in areas that already had a high number of people claiming health-related benefits before the lockdowns....