In November 2022, we reported thousands of disabled people had had their benefits paused during extended hospital stays under a rule which charities said penalised the most vulnerable.

It came after a court case was withdrawn which had been set to challenge the lawfulness of the so-called "hospitalisation rule" through an application for judicial review.

Under this rule, a person's entitlement to the disability benefit Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was suspended if they had received care in a hospital or a similar institution for 28 days or more.

Affected families said they were needed to help care for their disabled relatives in hospital which led to extra expenses during this time.

The government said when somebody was in receipt of long-term NHS in-patient care, it did not pay benefits to stop the taxpayer from paying double.

We provided figures for the total number of people whose PIP payments were suspended due to spending 28 days or more in a hospital or similar institution for each local authority for the quarter from 1 February to 30 April for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022, so we were comparing the same point in time. For a sense of proportion we also provided the total PIP claims for each local authority for each of those financial years.

As the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions was originally named as the defendant in the application for judicial review, we sourced figures from The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) only and they covered Great Britain.

The suspensions data were obtained through a request to the DWP under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI). The total claims data were the DWP’s figures too and they were obtained from the DWP’s online Stat-Xplore tool.

For each year and local authority, we provided the ratio of total suspensions due to hospitalisation, to total PIP claims to give a sense of proportion.

For each year and local authority, we also calculated which was the primary disabling condition for people claiming PIP which had the highest number of suspensions due to hospitalisation.

In some cases, several groups had the same number (because the DWP rounded its figures on suspensions) so in those instances, the conditions were presented in a list separated by commas. The number of suspensions for those groups was contained in the corresponding “Max” column for that year.

• The total number of PIP suspensions under the hospitalisation rule in Great Britain increased from 30,860 in the quarter to the end of April 2020, to 45,850 in the quarter to the end of April 2022
• The highest numbers of PIP suspensions were for people with mental health conditions

We produced this story pack and this dataset.

We also produced this website allowing our regional news partners to easily access information for the local authorities' areas they covered.

• Nicola Clulow (she/her), mother and known carer for Cameron Mitchell (he/him), who had sought a judicial review of the so-called "hospitalisation rule" before the case was withdrawn
• Dan Scorer (he/him), head of policy at Mencap, the learning disability charity
• Jonathan Beebee (he/him), Royal College of Nursing professional lead for learning disability nursing
• Carolin Ott (she/her), the solicitor at law firm Leigh Day which represented Cameron Mitchell in the [now-withdrawn] application for judicial review
• Craig Mathieson (he/him), whose family won a legal battle over Disability Living Allowance in 2015 at the Supreme Court
• Rheian Davies (she/her), head of the legal unit at the mental health charity Mind
• The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
• Ken Butler (he/him), welfare rights and policy adviser for the charity Disability Rights UK
• Alex Kennedy (he/him), head of campaigns from the charity Rethink Mental Illness

The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to the wider news industry as part of the BBC Local News Partnership. Stories written by partners based on this research included:

• Andover Advertiser: Disabled Basingstoke and Test Valley residents miss out on benefits 14 November 2022
• Barrhead News: Disabled people missing out on cash through ‘hospitalisation rule’ 4 December 2022
• Basingstoke Gazette (in print): Hundreds of disabled residents miss out on benefits due to 'hospital rule' 14 November 2022
• Basingstoke Gazette: Disabled Basingstoke and Test Valley residents miss out on benefits 14 November 2022
• Bolton News: Bolton: 100s miss out on PIP benefits due to 'hospital rule' 4 November 2022
• Bury Times: Hundreds of people in Bury lost access to PIP in hospital 2 November 2022
• Cwmbran Life: Ninety disabled people in Torfaen had benefits stopped when in hospital 8 November 2022
• Daily Record (Scotland): Thousands of disabled Scots lose benefits while requiring prolonged hospital treatment 2 November 2022
• Denbighshire Free Press: Long term hospital patients in Wrexham and Flintshire have benefits suspended 2 November 2022
• The Gazette (Johnstone & Renfrewshire): Disabled people missing out on cash through ‘hospitalisation rule’ 6 November 2022
• Grantham Journal: Disability benefit suspensions during extended hospital stays penalise the most vulnerable, say critics 2 November 2022
• Greatest Hits Radio/GI Media (East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire): Locals see benefits cut due to hospital stays 2 November 2022
• Grimsby Live: Charity slams benefits rule as around 90 northern Lincs hospital patients a month have payments stopped 2 November 2022
• Kenilworth Nub News: Hundreds of disabled people in Warwickshire had their benefits stops while in hospital 2 November 2022
• The Leader: Long term hospital patients in Wrexham and Flintshire have benefits suspended 2 November 2022
• Lichfield Live: Data reveals increase in number of people in Lichfield seeing disability benefits payments stopped due to hospitalisation 2 November 2022
• The Lincolnite: Lincolnshire’s disabled suffer benefits cuts after long hospital stays 2 November 2022
• Lincolnshire Live: Nearly 1,000 people in Lincolnshire suffer benefit cuts in five months amid 50 per cent rise 2 November 2022
• Lynn News: Disability benefit suspensions during extended hospital stays penalise the most vulnerable, say critics 3 November 2022
• Manchester Evening News: Thousands of disabled people in Greater Manchester had their benefits stopped while in hospital 2 November 2022
• Manchester World: Disabled people in Greater Manchester have benefits stopped while in hospital due to controversial rule 2 November 2022
• Newark Advertiser: Disability benefit suspensions during extended hospital stays penalise the most vulnerable, say critics 2 November 2022
• Norfolk Live: Thousands of disabled people in Norfolk had benefits stopped while in hospital 4 November 2022
• Oldham Times: Disability PIP benefits paused for hundreds in Oldham 3 November 2022
• Oxfordsire Live: Hundreds of disabled people in Oxfordshire had benefits stopped when in hospital 7 November 2022
• Spalding Today: Disability benefit suspensions during extended hospital stays penalise the most vulnerable, say critics 2 November 2022
• Stamford Mercury: Disability benefit suspensions during extended hospital stays penalise the most vulnerable, say critics 2 November 2022
• Teesside Live: Huge rise in disabled people having benefits stopped during hospital stays 2 November 2022
• Telegraph & Argus (Bradford): Disabled people are hit by benefits 'hospital stay rule' 3 November 2022
• Wigan Today: Hundreds of Wigan people have benefits stopped while in hospital due to controversial rule 3 November 2022

The story featured online and as a bulletin piece across BBC local radio through 2 November 2022.

BBC Shared Data Unit senior journalist Alex Homer carried out two-way interviews to discuss the story on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Somerset, BBC Radio Devon, BBC Radio Surrey and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

The report made bulletins for BBC Radio Bristol, BBC Sussex, BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Shropshire, BBC Radio Oxford, BBC Radio Solent, BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Radio Leicester, BBC Radio Jersey, BBC Radio York and BBC Radio Cumbria.

• The Mirror (Opinion): 'Disabled people having their benefits cut while in hospital shows Tory cruelty' 4 November 2022