Evidence page · DWP Stat-Xplore analysis
PIP outcomes for DWP-coded chronic fatigue syndrome
England and Wales. Every figure on this page shows the number of decisions, awards or claimants it is based on, and carries its period, basis and source. Basis differs by dataset: decision and award figures are new claims only, while caseload figures include cases reassessed from Disability Living Allowance. The full dataset is available as CSV and JSON below.
Published 26 August 2026. Last updated 28 August 2026. These figures reflect the DWP quarterly PIP statistics, 16 June 2026 release and will be rebuilt when the next quarterly release lands on 15 September 2026.
- Source
- DWP Stat-Xplore Open Data API
- Release
- DWP quarterly PIP statistics, 16 June 2026 release
- Basis, clearances dataset
- New claims only, excluding DLA reassessment. Applies to the award rates, the regional table and the award length tables.
- Basis, caseload dataset
- All claimants, including cases reassessed from Disability Living Allowance. Applies to the 33,554 claimant total, the April series, the sex split and the enhanced daily living share.
Read first
Limitations
- DWP records this condition as Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). There is no separate myalgic encephalomyelitis category in the dataset, so these figures reflect DWP's coding and are not a measure of ME.
- Coverage is England and Wales. Scotland has migrated to Adult Disability Payment. Northern Ireland is administered separately by the Department for Communities.
- The three year window used for the regional and award length figures (May 2023 to April 2026) does not match the twelve month window (May 2025 to April 2026) or the all time window used for the national award rates. The rates in different sections are therefore not directly comparable with each other.
Section A
National figures, England and Wales
Caseload by year, April snapshots
| April | Claimants |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 16,031 |
| 2020 | 18,430 |
| 2021 | 20,375 |
| 2022 | 22,606 |
| 2023 | 25,424 |
| 2024 | 28,150 |
| 2025 | 30,576 |
| 2026 | 33,554 |
Source: DWP Stat-Xplore Open Data API. DWP quarterly PIP statistics, 16 June 2026 release. Basis: All claimants, including cases reassessed from Disability Living Allowance. An earlier extract of this same release gave the April 2026 caseload as 33,555. The current query gives 33,554. We publish the current figure.
Section B
Award rate by year, new claims
Twelve month windows ending April. Basis: new claims only, excluding dla reassessment. Each rate is shown with the awards and decisions it is based on.
| Window | Awarded | Decided | Award rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| to Apr 2019 | 1,271 | 3,035 | 41.9% |
| to Apr 2020 | 1,078 | 2,572 | 41.9% |
| to Apr 2021 | 1,402 | 3,306 | 42.4% |
| to Apr 2022 | 1,914 | 4,305 | 44.5% |
| to Apr 2023 | 2,593 | 5,546 | 46.8% |
| to Apr 2024 | 3,002 | 5,758 | 52.1% |
| to Apr 2025 | 3,226 | 5,894 | 54.7% |
| to Apr 2026 | 2,684 | 5,451 | 49.2% |
The award rate rose by roughly thirteen percentage points between the year to April 2019 and the year to April 2025, then fell by five and a half points in the year to April 2026. These figures describe the movement only. They do not explain it.
The headline twelve month figure elsewhere on this page is 49.3% on 5,448 decisions. This later extract of the same release gives 49.2% on 5,451 decisions for the identical window. The difference is three decisions and one tenth of a percentage point. Both figures are kept as pulled rather than one being changed to match the other.
Source: DWP Stat-Xplore Open Data API. DWP quarterly PIP statistics, 16 June 2026 release. Basis: New claims only, excluding DLA reassessment.
Section C
By region, new claims
May 2023 to April 2026. 17,064 decisions in total across the regions shown. The table is sortable by any column.
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 1,003 | 760 | 1,763 | 56.9% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 700 | 539 | 1,239 | 56.5% |
| North West | 1,180 | 970 | 2,150 | 54.9% |
| North East | 411 | 345 | 756 | 54.4% |
| South East | 1,379 | 1,225 | 2,604 | 53.0% |
| East of England | 1,215 | 1,089 | 2,304 | 52.7% |
| South West | 1,671 | 1,673 | 3,344 | 50.0% |
| West Midlands | 516 | 573 | 1,089 | 47.4% |
| East Midlands | 561 | 656 | 1,217 | 46.1% |
| Wales | 263 | 335 | 598 | 44.0% |
Regions with fewer than 200 decisions in the window are omitted. Scotland is excluded because it has migrated to Adult Disability Payment.
Awarded counts clearances recorded as awarded at initial decision, at either the standard or enhanced rate and for either component. Disallowed counts clearances disallowed at initial decision, whether disallowed pre-assessment for failing to return the form or attend, or disallowed post-assessment on the points scored. Withdrawn clearances, and clearances with an unknown or not recorded outcome, are excluded from both columns and from the denominator, so Awarded plus Disallowed equals Decided exactly on every row.
The Awarded column above sums to 8,899, while the award length section reports 8,907 awards for the identical window. The difference is awards in regions omitted from this table by the 200 decision rule. The two figures do not disagree.
The spread between the highest and lowest award rate in the table is 12.9 percentage points.
Source: DWP Stat-Xplore Open Data API. DWP quarterly PIP statistics, 16 June 2026 release. Basis: New claims only, excluding DLA reassessment.
Section D
Does the regional variation persist
The same regions, split into three twelve month windows rather than merged into one. Award rate first, with the number of new claim decisions the rate is based on in brackets. Basis: new claims only, excluding dla reassessment.
| Region | to Apr 2024 | to Apr 2025 | to Apr 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| North East | 52.0% (254) | 57.7% (281) | 52.9% (221) |
| North West | 57.1% (753) | 55.8% (763) | 51.1% (634) |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 60.2% (625) | 57.9% (610) | 51.9% (528) |
| East Midlands | 43.2% (419) | 49.8% (420) | 45.2% (378) |
| West Midlands | 43.4% (410) | 48.6% (360) | 51.1% (319) |
| East of England | 54.8% (821) | 56.4% (782) | 46.2% (701) |
| London | 57.7% (407) | 57.0% (421) | 54.7% (411) |
| South East | 53.2% (832) | 55.2% (882) | 50.4% (890) |
| South West | 47.3% (1,010) | 54.7% (1,153) | 47.6% (1,181) |
| Wales | 45.8% (216) | 45.9% (207) | 39.4% (175)below threshold |
Cells marked below threshold have fewer than 200 decisions in the window, which is the threshold applied elsewhere on this page.
What the year by year regional data shows
- The broad pattern is fairly stable. London, Yorkshire and The Humber and the North West sit near the top of the range in most years, while Wales and the East Midlands sit near the bottom in most years.
- Individual regions move by between three and ten percentage points from one year to the next, so a single year's ranking is not reliable on its own.
- Nine of the ten regions fell in the most recent year, which matches the national fall over the same period, so the latest movement looks system wide rather than regional.
- One cell falls below the 200 decision threshold applied elsewhere on this page: Wales, year to April 2026, 175 decisions. It is marked in the table and should be read with that in mind.
Source: DWP Stat-Xplore Open Data API. DWP quarterly PIP statistics, 16 June 2026 release. Basis: New claims only, excluding DLA reassessment. Awarded counts clearances recorded as awarded at initial decision, at either the standard or enhanced rate and for either component. Disallowed counts clearances disallowed at initial decision, whether disallowed pre-assessment for failing to return the form or attend, or disallowed post-assessment on the points scored. Withdrawn clearances, and clearances with an unknown or not recorded outcome, are excluded from both columns and from the denominator, so Awarded plus Disallowed equals Decided exactly on every row.
Section E
Award length, new claims
May 2023 to April 2026. 8,907 awards. Shares are of that total.
| Award length | Awards | Share of 8,907 |
|---|---|---|
| Short Term Award (no review date) | 35 | 0.4% |
| Up to and including 1 year | 205 | 2.3% |
| More than 1 and up to and including 2 years | 6,292 | 70.6% |
| More than 2 and up to and including 3 years | 1,627 | 18.3% |
| More than 3 and up to and including 4 years | 110 | 1.2% |
| More than 4 and up to and including 5 years | 235 | 2.6% |
| More than 5 and up to and including 6 years | 8 | 0.1% |
| More than 8 and up to and including 9 years | 7 | 0.1% |
| Ongoing Awards | 388 | 4.4% |
What the award length data does and does not show
73.3% of chronic fatigue syndrome awards in this window run for two years or less, on 8,907 awards. The figure for all conditions is 73.9%, on 1,107,632 awards. On short awards, therefore, chronic fatigue syndrome is not an outlier.
On ongoing awards, which are awards granted without a review date, the comparator table shows a pattern rather than a single contrast. Conditions with objective or degenerative pathology sit at the top of the range: rheumatoid arthritis at 9.6% and multiple sclerosis at 9.3%. Contested, fluctuating or largely invisible conditions cluster at the bottom: fibromyalgia 3.4%, autism 2.3%, ADHD or ADD 0.6% and endometriosis 0.3%. Chronic fatigue syndrome sits within that lower cluster at 4.4%, against 6.9% across all conditions, rather than being uniquely placed. Four of the six comparator conditions have a lower ongoing award share than chronic fatigue syndrome.
Case mix and prognosis differ between these conditions, so this comparison does not by itself establish differential treatment.
Ongoing award share, same window and basis
| Condition | Awards in window | Ongoing awards |
|---|---|---|
| Rheumatoid arthritis | 16,999 | 9.6% |
| Multiple sclerosis | 7,520 | 9.3% |
| Chronic fatigue syndrome | 8,907 | 4.4% |
| Fibromyalgia | 44,891 | 3.4% |
| Autism | 30,197 | 2.3% |
| ADHD / ADD | 24,194 | 0.6% |
| Endometriosis | 3,489 | 0.3% |
| All conditions | 1,107,632 | 6.9% |
Source: DWP Stat-Xplore Open Data API. DWP quarterly PIP statistics, 16 June 2026 release. Basis: New claims only, excluding DLA reassessment. Window: May 2023 to April 2026.
The Awarded column above sums to 8,899, while the award length section reports 8,907 awards for the identical window. The difference is awards in regions omitted from this table by the 200 decision rule. The two figures do not disagree.
Short awards alongside long claims
70.6% of new awards in this window run for two years or less, on 8,907 awards. At the same time, 46.4% of people currently receiving PIP for this condition have been claiming for five years or more, on 33,546 claimants as at April 2026.
The two figures come from different datasets on different bases. Award length is new claim decisions over the three year window, excluding DLA reassessment. Claim duration is the April 2026 caseload, including cases reassessed from Disability Living Allowance. They describe related but not identical populations.
Section F
Age, mobility component and how long people have been claiming
All three tables are from the caseload dataset as at April 2026. Basis: all claimants, including cases reassessed from disability living allowance. Each share is of the total shown in its own column heading.
Age band, total 33,545 claimants
| Age band | Claimants | Share of 33,545 |
|---|---|---|
| 16 to 19 | 821 | 2.4% |
| 20 to 24 | 1,560 | 4.7% |
| 25 to 29 | 1,865 | 5.6% |
| 30 to 34 | 2,288 | 6.8% |
| 35 to 39 | 2,826 | 8.4% |
| 40 to 44 | 3,389 | 10.1% |
| 45 to 49 | 3,643 | 10.9% |
| 50 to 54 | 4,131 | 12.3% |
| 55 to 59 | 4,442 | 13.2% |
| 60 to 64 | 3,943 | 11.8% |
| 65 to 69 | 2,763 | 8.2% |
| 70 to 74 | 1,332 | 4.0% |
| 75 to 79 | 542 | 1.6% |
Mobility component, total 33,555 claimants
| Mobility component | Claimants | Share of 33,555 |
|---|---|---|
| Enhanced | 18,866 | 56.2% |
| Standard | 9,313 | 27.8% |
| Nil | 5,376 | 16.0% |
How long people have been claiming, total 33,546 claimants
| Time on current claim | Claimants | Share of 33,546 |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 3 months | 1,142 | 3.4% |
| 3 to 6 months | 842 | 2.5% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 1,810 | 5.4% |
| 1 to 2 years | 4,206 | 12.5% |
| 2 to 3 years | 4,045 | 12.1% |
| 3 to 4 years | 3,250 | 9.7% |
| 4 to 5 years | 2,681 | 8.0% |
| 5 years and over | 15,570 | 46.4% |
The three tables in this section have slightly different totals, 33,545 for age, 33,555 for mobility component and 33,546 for claim duration, because of DWP's own rounding and suppression in the published tables. The totals are reported as pulled rather than being forced to agree.
Source: DWP Stat-Xplore Open Data API. DWP quarterly PIP statistics, 16 June 2026 release. Basis: All claimants, including cases reassessed from Disability Living Allowance. Period: April 2026.
Section G
Methodology
Figures are drawn from the DWP Stat-Xplore Open Data API, using the PIP Clearances dataset for decisions and award length, and the PIP Cases with Entitlement from 2019 dataset for caseload. The release is the DWP quarterly PIP statistics, 16 June 2026 release.
Basis, per dataset. Clearance-derived figures, which means the award rates, the regional table and the award length tables, are new claims only, excluding dla reassessment: cases reassessed from Disability Living Allowance are excluded from those figures. Caseload-derived figures, which means the 33,554 claimant total, the April series from 2019, the sex split and the enhanced daily living share, are on a different basis: all claimants, including cases reassessed from disability living allowance. Reassessed DLA cases are included in those caseload figures and make up 8,502 of the 33,554. A single basis line cannot cover both datasets, so every figure, table row, CSV row and JSON field carries its own basis.
An earlier extract of this same release gave the April 2026 caseload as 33,555. The current query gives 33,554. We publish the current figure.
Definitions, clearance outcomes. Awarded counts clearances recorded as awarded at initial decision, at either the standard or enhanced rate and for either component. Disallowed counts clearances disallowed at initial decision, whether disallowed pre-assessment for failing to return the form or attend, or disallowed post-assessment on the points scored. Withdrawn clearances, and clearances with an unknown or not recorded outcome, are excluded from both columns and from the denominator, so Awarded plus Disallowed equals Decided exactly on every row.
Windows: national caseload is the April 2026 snapshot, with April snapshots for each year from 2019. The all time award rate covers all new-claim decisions to April 2026. The twelve month award rate covers May 2025 to April 2026. Regional and award length figures cover May 2023 to April 2026.
Geography is the claimant's region of residence, England and Wales only. Percentages are shown as published to one decimal place, and each is presented with the number of decisions or awards it is based on.
A note on the source link. The underlying tables are queried through DWP's Stat-Xplore Open Data API, which needs a free DWP account, so a direct Stat-Xplore link would land a reader on a log in screen. The source links on this page therefore point to DWP's published Personal Independence Payment statistics collection, which is openly accessible and is where DWP releases the same underlying data.
Every figure on this page is reproducible from DWP Stat-Xplore by querying the named datasets with the same condition category, the basis stated for that dataset, the same clearance-outcome selection as set out in the definitions above, and the same windows.
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Section H
How to cite this page
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Section I
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Section J
Download the data
Both files contain every dataset on this page: national figures including the caseload series, award rate by year, regional decisions merged and split by year, award length with the ongoing award comparison, and the age, mobility component and claim duration splits. Each row carries its period, basis, denominator, source and release.
Related: PIP statistics for ME and chronic fatigue syndrome and our wider statistics methodology.