Cuts to housing benefits and an increase in the state pension age have been blamed for an estimated £900m rise in disability benefit claims over the past decade.

New research – published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies – examined four major welfare reforms between 2008 and 2018.

It concluded that reductions in non-health benefits are likely to have pushed more people towards health-related support , including personal independence payments (PIP). New Feature

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“Across four different reforms, we find an unintended consequence of benefit cuts – that they lead to more people claiming disability benefits,” said Eduin Latimer, senior research economist at the IFS.

The report suggests this can happen in two ways. Lower income can wo

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