Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the mean wait for a mandatory reconsideration after a personal independence payment assessment was in (a) Barnsley, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) nationally in each of the last five years for which data is available.

Information on median clearance times for PIP Mandatory Reconsiderations (MRs) is provided in the tables below.

Median Clearance Times, in Calendar Days, for PIP MRs, Normal Rules by Month of MR Clearance:

Source: PIP Computer System

Median Clearance Times, in Calendar Days, for PIP MRs, Normal Rules by Financial Year of MR Clearance:

Source: PIP Computer System

This data on PIP MR clearance times is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.

There has been an increase in outstanding PIP MR clearance times in recent months (it rose to 54 days in January 2019). Measures to reduce the number of outstanding MRs include:

• Age profiles of outstanding work are managed at a national level to ensure that cases which have been outstanding for longest are actioned first.
• Resource levels dedicated to the clearance of MRs have been regularly reviewed with significant recruitment, training and redeployment undertaken to support reduced clearance times.

MR is a key element of the decision making process for both the Department and claimants, and whilst ensuring they make quality decisions, decision makers work hard to clear applications without delay. Gathering the right evidence is critical at the MR stage if decisions are not to go to appeal; and we are reviewing our processes to not only obtain this, but to do so whilst continuing to make decisions timeously.