Disability benefit claims among working-age Britons will rise by a quarter of a million each year until the end of the decade, official forecasts show.

Around 4.2m adults will be claiming personal independence payment (PIP) by 2030, up from just over 3m today, according to estimates published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Predictions of a relentless rise in claims means the cost of footing the rising working-age disability benefits bill will soar to £31bn in today’s prices by 2030, up 40pc from an estimated £22bn this financial year.

The figures underscore the challenge facing Labour to resolve Britain’s worklessness crisis which has dogged the economy since the pandemic. There are roughly 2.7m people who are neither in work nor looking for a job owing to ill health, according to official data.

Britain’s budget watchdog recently warned that total spending on health-related and sickness benefits was on course to surpass £100bn by the end of decade, with payments accounting for 3.4pc of the entire output of the economy by then.

It means more than one in eight people of working age will be claiming some form of disability or incapacity benefit such as Universal Credit by the end of the decade.

The data also showed the number of parents claiming disability benefits for their children will rise above 1m this decade amid a surge in reported autism and ADHD cases that will cost taxpayers £6.5bn a-year by 2030.

PIP is the main non-means-tested benefit for those with health conditions or disabilities, with welfare payments of up to £9,500 a year designed to help people with living costs and getting around.

Around a third of current PIP claims are linked to mental health issues, with anxiety and depression the single biggest stated reason for a claim.

Payments linked to supporting people with autism and learning difficulties also make up a substantial share of claims linked to mental health, figures show.

While people who claim PIP can be both in and out of work, analysis by Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) suggests just 16pc of those who receive it work.

While the Tory government set out plans for a major overhaul of PIP in the last parliament, including proposals to replace monthly cash payments with vouchers or one-off grants towards particular costs, Labour has suggested it may ditch those plans, adding it “will be considering our own approach to social security in due course”.

The Government will set out plans to get more people back to work next week when it presents its white paper on how to get Britain working amid a goal of reaching an employment rate of 80pc.