AROUND 10,000 people on disability benefits will receive higher payments, ministers announced yesterday after finally rewriting their rules in line with judges’ orders.

The personal independence payment (PIP) claimants will receive any extra £70 to £90 a week, backdated to an Upper Tribunal judgement last March.

Judges ruled that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) must base decisions about claimants on the level of harm that could come to them when carrying out tasks unsupervised, rather than likelihood of harm.

The rules affect deaf people, and those with epilepsy, among others.

Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Debbie Abrahams said: “While we welcome any increase in support for those who need PIP, this is a drop in the ocean of the funding that the courts have ruled should rightfully go to recipients.

“The government must immediately act on all of the court judgements on PIP.”

Previously, the Tories rewrote the law on PIP to evade rulings made in two tribunals which would have seen increased payments for over 150,000 people.