Welfare payments are being handed out to thousands of people suffering from conditions such as obesity, alcoholism and acne, it has emerged.

An analysis by the TaxPayers’ Alliance has uncovered a surge in claims under the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) scheme, with recipients eligible for up to £187 a week in state support.

Figures show 5,817 people were receiving enhanced PIP for alcohol misuse in April this year – up from just 1,443 in 2019. A further 1,635 people were getting the same payments for drug misuse, compared with 277 six years ago.

Claims were also granted for 13 people with factitious disorders – a rare mental condition where individuals deliberately fake or cause their own illness – and five people suffering from acne.

A total of 857 were being paid the higher rate for Tourette’s syndrome, while 31 were being helped due to food intolerance.

Others were given mobility assistance for obsessive compulsive disorder (2,783 claimants), sleep apnoea (1,211), and writer’s cramp, with six sufferers of this claiming.

The payments are designed to help those with long-term health conditions or disabilities cover extra daily costs.

But anyone receiving the enhanced rate for mobility, £77.05 a week, can also use it to lease a brand-new car under the state-backed Motability scheme. Popular choices include the Nissan Juke and Peugeot 2008.

Altogether, 1.75 million people in England received the higher level of PIP in April 2025, an increase from 734,136 in January 2019.

The campaign group said the data, based on government figures, showed the system was being increasingly used to support people with mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, as well as autism.

The number of enhanced claims for autism alone soared from 26,256 to 114,211 over the period. Successful applications for anxiety and depression also hit 114,211, up from just 23,647 in 2019.

Payments linked to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) went from 4,233 to 37,339, while those for obesity rose to 2,346.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance said it had launched a new “dashboard” to map PIP and other benefits claims by postcode. It found that almost one in ten people in England and Wales now receive PIP.

In Wales, the average was 147.7 claimants per 1,000 residents, with Blaenau Gwent the highest at 211. But the biggest increase in claims was seen in the East of England, up 118 per cent since 2019.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “While England is a sicker country than it was before the pandemic, the size of the increases for many of these conditions surely cannot be believed by even the most gullible of MPs.

“Britain is in desperate need of a politician who has the courage to tackle this system head on to ensure that taxpayers’ money is being protected while those who genuinely need help receive it.”

The Department for Work and Pensions has previously insisted that all PIP applications are rigorously assessed and awarded based on individual need, not diagnosis alone.