Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of mandatory reconsiderations which have taken longer than 30 days.

To provide information on Mandatory Reconsiderations (MR) clearance times longer than 30 days across all DWP administered benefits would incur disproportionate cost.

There is, however, some available information on the average waiting time for MRs of Employment Support Allowance (ESA) work capability assessments. This is published and can be found in table 16 here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-including-mandatory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-march-2019

Furthermore, it is planned that MR clearance times for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will, for the first time, be included in the PIP Official Statistics publication. This publication will be available from 11^th June 2019.

It should also be noted that the Department’s decision makers are, in relation to PIP, now proactively engaging with claimants at the MR stage to ensure that they have all material evidence before they make their decision. Early indications are that this is helping decision makers.