TAXPAYERS are spending £3,500 an HOUR on benefit payments for obesity – with calls to hand claimants new weight loss pills to get them off the dole.
Some 3,908 Brits are on PIP because they are severely overweight and cannot get around or live their lives as normal.
Taxpayers are spending £3,500 an hour on benefits for obesity
Critics demand that PIP obesity claimants be given fat-busting medication to help them get out of the benefits system Credit: Getty
They are paid a combined £31.6million a year – or £3,615 for every single hour of the year, with no requirement to find a job.
Department for Work and Pensions data shows a staggering 1,408 severely obese claimants qualify for the highest “enhanced” rate for daily living, pocketing £114.60 a week to help with everyday tasks.
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A further 2,502 claimants receive the standard daily living rate of £76.70 a week.
Some 2,761 qualify for the top-tier mobility payment of £80 a week because their weight leaves them virtually unable to walk.
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It means the worst-affected group – 1,282 people who qualify for both enhanced pots – are entitled to a maximum combined payout of £194.60 every week.
And just under 40 per cent of the total – 1,721 – have been claiming PIP for obesity for more than FIVE years.
This April’s 3,908 claimants are some two-thirds higher than the 2,332 who claimed PIP with obesity as their primary condition in the last year before the pandemic.
And last night, critics of the system demanded a total overhaul, with PIP obesity claimants being given fat-busting medication to help them get out of the benefits system.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: “Much like ADHD, anxiety and depression, obesity is now a treatable condition.
“Giving out these pills would be cheaper for the NHS, taxpayers and better in the long run for the claimant too.
“Because it is treatable, it is not a life-long condition anymore… the medication is utterly cheaper.”
Campaigners say the cost of the jabs, or new pills, is significantly lower than continuing to allow obese Brits to remain on the dole for years at a time.
PIP is not means-tested, meaning those getting thousands of pounds a year in benefits can continue to work.
It comes as obesity medication, including Wegovy, went on sale in the UK in pill form for the first time this week.
Tens of thousands are expected to take the new drug, which will be sold in 1.5mg and 4mg doses.
The £100-a-month tablet is the first of its kind to be approved by the UK medicines regulator.
And it is expected to rival fat jabs such as Mounjaro that need weekly injections.
The pills are not yet available on the NHS but can be bought privately at supermarkets.
The last Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, had planned to launch a trial where the unemployed were given fat jabs.
He said at the time: “Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether.”
A Government spokesman said: “We’re fixing the broken system we inherited and have launched the Timms Review to make sure PIP is fit and fair for the future.
“We are tackling obesity by rolling out weight loss drugs to more patients, requiring large businesses to report on the healthiness of their food and setting new targets to improve the healthiness of products sold.
“The increase in the PIP caseload has slowed under this government, falling from 400,000 in the 12 months to July 2024, to 270,000 in the 12 months to April 2026.”
