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Britain’s benefits bill for people with bad backs has more than doubled to almost £1.9bn a year, new figures have revealed.
It means the taxpayer-funded handouts have soared from £2m per day to £5m per day in just seven years.
The number of people claiming Personal Independence Payment (Pip) for back pain has hit 276,725 – up by more than 111,000 from the figure in 2019, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Another 47 people are signed up every day and the average payout has climbed 40pc to £131.21 a week.
It comes as the Government’s own review declared the benefit was not working as intended and needed fundamental change.
The Timms Review found Pip hindered people trying to get back into work and failed to give taxpayers a fair deal.
Four million people now claim Pip in England and Wales, with the total bill set to more than double from £26bn a year to £45bn by 2031.
Back pain alone accounts for an estimated £1.89bn of that, more than double the £800m it was costing in 2019.
The fastest-rising group of back pain Pip claimants is pensioners, who will potentially keep collecting the payments for another 20 years or more.
There are 70,556 people aged 65 or older drawing Pip for a bad back, at an estimated cost of £491m a year.
These pensioners accounted for just 15pc of bad back claimants in 2019, but today they make up 26pc.
They are not new claimants, because Pip is shut to anyone who has already reached state pension age, currently 66.
But once an award is granted, it can continue indefinitely and at pension age it becomes a payment with no fixed end date.
These awards are then reviewed once every 10 years. It means almost all of these pensioners first claimed while still of working age, then carried the money into retirement.
Pip is meant to cover the extra costs of disability and is not means-tested, so claimants can work or have private savings without it affecting their handouts.
It comes in two parts: a daily living element for tasks such as cooking and washing, and a mobility element for getting about.
With the payments, some claimants will also become eligible for a motability car as well as a Blue Badge to avoid parking restrictions.
Sir Keir Starmer ordered a review of welfare payments in 2025 after a Labour backbench revolt blocked his attempt to cut £5bn from the benefits bill.
The Timms review reported this month, leaving ministers under pressure to spell out how they will fix a benefit they now admit is “no longer fit for purpose”.
Some Pip claims have proved bogus, among them that of grandfather Andrew Vincent, 62, who was jailed for six months in October 2025.
He pocketed £18,000 after failing to tell the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that the prolapsed discs he first claimed for in 2017 had improved.
Undercover investigators filmed him coaching a pub football team in Biddulph, Staffordshire, moving around the pitch and carrying kit.
He had told officials he could walk no more than 20m, yet stood for long periods on the touchline.
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Jonathan Eida, a researcher at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers are breaking their backs funding the country’s crushing benefits bill.
“When every week adds hundreds more to the list, and scammers are caught coaching football while claiming they can’t walk, it’s clear the system is broken.
“The Government must tighten the criteria and ensure disability welfare only goes to those who truly cannot support themselves.”
A DWP spokesman said: “The central conclusion of the Timms Review Interim Report is clear: Pip is no longer fit for purpose. The review’s final recommendations are due this autumn and will lay the foundation for deep, sustainable reform.
“These statistics only include a claimant’s primary condition, but it may be a different health condition that entitles a claimant to Pip.
“We are working to fix the welfare system so that it supports people who genuinely need it, while delivering fairness to the taxpayer – with reforms set to save £1.9bn by the end of 2030-31.”
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