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Official Statistics

PIP administrative exercise for MM: completion report at 17 November 2025 

Published 28 May 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/pip-administrative-exercise-for-mm-completion-report-at-17-november-2025/pip-administrative-exercise-for-mm-completion-report-at-17-november-2025

This is the final report for MM.  

1. Policy background and introduction  

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was introduced in April 2013. PIP replaces Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for claimants of working age. PIP is a payment that is based on the functional needs of a claimant arising from a disability or long term health condition.  

This publication is concerned with the Supreme Court judgment, known as MM, which led to changes in the way Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is assessed.  

1.1 MM judgment  

On 18 July 2019, the Supreme Court handed down a judgment following an Upper Tribunal (UT) decision (handed down on 6 April 2016), which changed the way the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) considers the definition of ‘social support’ when engaging with other people face to face (and when ‘prompting’ should be considered ‘social support’) in Daily Living Activity 9, and how far in advance that social support can be provided.   

1.2 Administrative exercise  

From 20 September 2021, the department has been carrying out an administrative exercise looking at entitlement to PIP on the date of the UT decision to review whether affected claimants are eligible for more support under PIP. This included looking again at claims decided before the guidance was implemented for new PIP decisions on 17 September 2020, and some where the department did not award PIP.  

The MM judgment can only affect a claimant’s assessment in the Daily Living part of the PIP assessment. The department has reviewed cases where additional points for Activity 9 (‘prompting’ or ‘social support’) may make a material difference to the amount of PIP claimants are entitled to.

The department did not review claims if:  

  • the enhanced rate of the daily living part of PIP had been awarded continuously since 6 April 2016  

  • a Tribunal made a decision on a claim since 6 April 2016  

  • a decision not to award PIP was made before 6 April 2016  

This was a complex exercise, with a large number of unique and sensitive cases. Claimants most likely to benefit from the MM judgment were those who scored 9(b), where the prompting they received should have been considered as ‘social support’, scoring an extra 2 points. The other group of claimants who might have benefited on just the timing part of the judgment (support in advance of the activity), were those who scored 9(a).    

The department identified around 326,000 claimants for the 9(b) group. The department invited around 275,000 claimants in the 9(a) group to contact the department if they thought their claim was affected by the timing part of this judgment only.   

Additionally, for 9(a), the department prioritised checking the claims of individuals known from our systems to be terminally ill and cases where the claimant was recently deceased. Therefore, the department identified around 31,000 terminally ill and deceased claimants in the 9(a) group.

1.3 Purpose of publication  

This publication presents DWP Management Information on completion of checking potentially affected cases as at 17 November 2025. It includes:  

  • the number of cases reviewed  

  • the number of payments made to qualifying claimants from the      application of the MM judgment  

  • the total amount of backdated PIP paid to qualifying claimants     from the application of the MM judgment  

  • the number of cases with a MM review decision changed at MR  

  • the total amount of backdated PIP paid to qualifying claimants who have had a review decision changed at MR  

This publication is an update on progress and follows the initial release of information published on 26 October 2023 (with data from 31 August 2023).

2. Cases reviewed  

2.1 MM9b  

The department started reviewing cases in this group in September 2021. The department reviewed claimants affected by the definition of “social support” during the period under review, where the extra points they may receive would make a material difference to their award.   

The department prioritised checking the claims of individuals known from our systems to be terminally ill and cases where the claimant was recently deceased, to ensure that they, or their representatives, received any backdated entitlement as quickly as possible.   

DWP Management Information showed:

  • around 275,000 cases were sent a letter  

  • around 4,800 cases requested a review  

  • around 31,000 deceased or Special Rules cases were reviewed  

  • around 220 payments have been made to qualifying claimants  

  • the total amount of additional payments the department has paid out to qualifying claimants is around £1.3 million   

  • fewer than 100 further claimants have been identified as benefitting from the exercise and are due a back payment following a review of their claim. However, the department has not been able to identify a payee to receive the payment and is unable to identify a representative or make contact

2.2 Mandatory Reconsiderations  

Claimants who wish to dispute a decision on the review of their PIP claim under MM can ask DWP to reconsider the decision. This is called a mandatory reconsideration (MR) and must be completed before an appeal is made and lodged with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS).  

DWP Management Information showed:  

  • around 390 cases have had a MM review decision changed  

  • the total amount of additional payments the department has paid out to qualifying claimants who have had a review decision changed at MR is around £2.8 million  

The department previously provided information on the number of MRs cleared. Due to data collection issues, the department is unable to provide this information and has removed it from the report.      

2.3 Notes about the data  

Source: DWP Management Information data, up to 17 November 2025, from the PIP MM administrative exercise. A case is defined as a unique individual within a given group.

Rounding  

All figures have been rounded as shown in the table. Some numbers may not sum due to rounding.

Range Rounded to the nearest
0 to 1,000 10
1,001 to 10,000 100
10,001 to 100,000 1,000
100,001 to 1 million 10,000
Over one million to 10 million 100,000
Over 10 million to 100 million One million

3. Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics  

The Code of Practice for Statistics (the Code) is built around 3 main concepts, or pillars:   

  • trustworthiness  

  • quality  

  • value  

The following explains how we have applied the pillars of the Code in a proportionate way.  

3.1 Trustworthiness – is about having confidence in the people and organisations that publish statistics  

Progress on the PIP administration exercise is base on DWP Management Information supplied through 2 sources:  

1. a data capture tool built to allow consistent and efficient recording of case review progress in the PIP administrative exercise  

2. the department’s computer system used to administer the benefit  

3.2 Quality – is about using data and methods that produce assured statistics  

The data presented on progress is partially taken from a data capture tool developed to accurately record progress and levels of arrears payments. Drop-down menus and validation checks assist in reliable data recording. Quality checks on the accuracy of data recording are manually carried out by Operational staff. DWP analysts have engaged with operational staff to ensure the quality of the data is fit-for-purpose.  

The data presented is also partially taken from data stored and processed on DWP administrative systems. As well as assurance on design of business rules used for producing figures, value outputs have been sense-checked against other outputs for comparable periods.  

As figures are derived from a mixture of automated and manually collated administrative data, numbers are provided as Management Information and not Official Statistics.  

3.3 Value – is about publishing statistics that support society’s needs for information  

This release provides an update on completion the PIP MM administrative exercise, together with context for those figures.  

In addition, it aims to reduce the administrative burden of answering Parliamentary questions, Freedom of Information requests and ad hoc queries to ensure timely responses to public queries.  

To support financial planning and management of departmental business, figures have been seen in advance by ministers and officials. This is in line with the Code, where pre-release access does not apply for releases based on routine management information – as covered in the National Statistician’s guidance. 

4. Future releases  

The exercise has now ended, therefore there will be no future releases of this publication.  

5. Where to find out more  

You can find out more in the following publications:  

For more information on PIP, please see:  

6. Contact information  

The department has contacted all those identified as potentially impacted and cases available to the exercise have been reviewed. Although we have completed the exercise, claimants can still ask the Department for Work and Pensions to conduct a review of their case, if they think they are affected.  

For press enquiries, contact DWP Press Office on: 0203 267 5144

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