The proportion of teenagers receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for autism and ADHD has more than tripled in some of the most prosperous areas of England, according to new research.
Analysis by the Nuffield Trust found the proportion of 16 and 17-year-olds receiving PIP for the conditions in the least-deprived fifth of neighbourhoods increased from 0.8 per cent in 2019 to 2.5 per cent in 2025. Rates remain higher in more deprived communities, but the increase there has been slower.
Sharpest rise in affluent areas
Among the most deprived areas, the proportion rose from 2.1 per cent in 2019 to 5.1 per cent last year. Overall, the number of 16 and 17-year-olds receiving PIP for autism and ADHD across England rose from 16,045 in 2019 to 51,148 in 2025.
This means the proportion of people in the age group receiving the disability benefit for the two conditions increased from 1.3 per cent to 3.4 per cent over the six-year period.
The Nuffield Trust estimated £296 million was spent on PIP for 16 and 17-year-olds with autism and ADHD in 2025.
Around £87m of this went to young people living in the 40 per cent least-deprived neighbourhoods, almost four times the £22m spent in 2019 after adjusting for inflation.
Local variations and ethnicity
Some relatively affluent areas recorded particularly large changes compared with the period before the pandemic.
In Runnymede, Surrey, the rate increased from around one in 58 young people in 2019 to one in 19 in 2025. Bracknell Forest in Berkshire saw the proportion rise from one in 89 to around one in 20.
Rates remained higher in some of England's most deprived communities. In Liverpool and Knowsley, around one in 12 people aged 16 and 17 were receiving PIP for autism and ADHD in 2025. This compared with around one in 35 in Liverpool and one in 57 in Knowsley in 2019.
Researchers also identified differences linked with the ethnic make-up of areas. The Nuffield Trust said PIP recipient rates for autism and ADHD were higher overall for people of white ethnicity than for other ethnic groups.
Possible explanations and policy implications
Sally Gainsbury, senior policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust, said analysis incorporating ethnicity data from the 2021 Census found areas with relatively high proportions of white residents also tended to have higher proportions of people receiving PIP for the conditions.
She said the findings suggested an association between being white and living in a relatively prosperous area and faster growth in PIP awards for autism and ADHD. However, researchers said the pattern could partly reflect unequal access to diagnosis.
Ms Gainsbury said: “PIP is meant to reflect how much a condition affects someone’s day-to-day life, rather than purely whether they have a diagnosis, so it’s intriguing to see that recipient rates have grown most in the areas where people seem to be doing relatively well in terms of employment and education.
“Our findings could reflect unequal access to diagnosis, which we know is substantial.
“But they could also point to inconsistencies and uncertainties, both in the welfare system and in wider society, about how disability is understood and assessed when it comes to autism and ADHD.”
She added that demand for diagnosis and treatment had increased significantly and warned that overwhelmed services risked missing people with the most pressing needs.
Nuffield Trust chief executive Thea Stein said policymakers would need to consider the increasingly complex picture as recognition and diagnosis of neurodiversity continued to grow.
She said this would involve considering where people's needs were best supported through the health and benefits systems and where wider changes to schools, workplaces and society might be more appropriate.
