PIP statistics for Chronic pain syndromes
As of April 2026. Next scheduled DWP update: 15 September 2026.
The figures below come from official DWP releases and Stat-Xplore. Every number links to its source and states the period it covers. Where DWP does not publish a per-condition figure, we leave it out rather than estimate.
How many people claim PIP for Chronic pain syndromes?
What is the PIP award rate for Chronic pain syndromes?
See it for your own area: Chronic pain syndromes claims are approved at different rates in every constituency. Check yours in 20 seconds. Free, no signup.
DWP subgroup total. Includes fibromyalgia (179,051) plus other chronic pain syndromes (17,281).
Claimant trend
See where Chronic pain syndromes ranks among all 165 conditions →
Mandatory Reconsideration
If you are refused
Two things happen next if a claim is disallowed: an internal DWP re-look (mandatory reconsideration), and then, if that fails, an independent tribunal.
Per-condition tribunal outcomes are not published by HMCTS. Read our guides for how to challenge a PIP decision.
Limitations
- DWP does not publish per-condition clearance times or per-condition tribunal outcomes, so those figures are not shown here.
- PIP condition categories reflect the primary disability recorded at the point of claim; many claimants have more than one condition.
How to read these figures
- Source
- DWP Stat-Xplore and the published DWP PIP statistical releases. Every figure on the page carries its own source link and the period it covers, and no figure here is recomputed or modelled by us.
- Population
- everyone in Great Britain with a PIP claim recorded by DWP under Chronic pain syndromes. Claims are coded by DWP to a single primary disabling condition, so a person with more than one condition appears once, under one code.
- Suppression and small numbers
- DWP rounds published volumes and suppresses small cells to protect identity. Where a group is too small to publish a stable rate we do not print a rate for it, and we do not fill the gap with an estimate.
- What these figures are not
- They are averages across a whole condition code over a whole period. They are not a prediction about any individual claim, not a measure of how disabling a condition is, and not a statement about anyone's entitlement. Decisions are made on the evidence in a single claim.
Full methodology: sources, periods, coding and known limitations.
How this page is paid for
This page is free and stays free. We fund it by selling letter tools to people who want help writing to their GP practice or their commissioner. You do not need to buy anything to use anything on this page.
What we publish free, what we sell, and the money we do not take.
Where are you in the process?
The figures above describe a population, not a person. If you are in the PIP process yourself, these are the three stages and what each one is for.
- Claiming or being reassessed now
A personalised PIP evidence pack written around the four reliability limbs, from your own answers.
Not available in Scotland.
- Decision refused, or scored lower than expected
A point-by-point mandatory reconsideration letter built from your decision letter, in the descriptor language DWP scores against. You have one month from the date of the decision letter.
England and Wales only.
- Mandatory reconsideration already refused
The next stage is an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. The pack is a written submission, an evidence checklist and a hearing preparation sheet.
England and Wales only.
Free help with any of these stages is available at no cost from Citizens Advice, your local welfare rights service and law centres. You do not have to pay anyone to make a claim or to challenge a decision.
Track Chronic pain syndromes PIP numbers
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