While wider welfare spending has, proportionately, remained stable, payments for disability benefits have taken up an increasing share of the total.
The latest figures show four million people in England and Wales are currently in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the main disability benefit.
Annual spending has increased sharply from £16.3bn in 2019/20 to £27.3bn in 2024/25, and is forecast to rise to more than £41bn by 2030.
But around half of those polled for the survey supported higher spending on disability benefits overall, while a majority also strongly backed extra payments for the costs of having a disability.
Around 83% of respondents supported additional payments to help with cooking, 80% for budgeting, and 78% for washing.
Just 3% replied that “nobody should get any additional money” for all three tasks.
Respondents were not asked if they thought it should be harder to claim those benefits.
“Despite growing political divisions on welfare, support for disability benefits remains remarkably strong,” said Dr Robert de Vries from the University of Kent, who was one of the report’s co-authors.
“Very few people favour cuts, disabled people are seen as among the most deserving recipients of support, and proposals to reduce disability benefits appear politically risky across the political spectrum.”
Proposals to reform PIP are due to be unveiled by the government in the autumn after an interim report published in the summer found the benefit was not fit for purpose.
Around 57% of Labour voters polled for the survey favoured more spending on disability benefits.
But there was broad political consensus that cuts would be wrong – just 5% of Labour voters, 7% of Conservatives and 11% of Reform UK backers said they supported cuts to those payments.
The British Social Attitudes survey, carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, has been gauging public opinion since 1983.
Its latest survey saw 4,656 interviews gathered between August and October 2025.
