Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 22 October 2025 to Question 80479 on Personal Independence Payment, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of increasing decision making resource on reducing median clearance times for mandatory reconsiderations.

From October 2025 onwards, the Department has cleared more PIP Mandatory Reconsiderations than it has received. This coincides with an increase in decision-making resource.

The latest published statistics indicate this has had an effect on median clearance times - a reduction from 87 calendar days in October 2025 to 79 calendar days in January 2026. Information on clearance times is in section 7 of the PIP official statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-statistics-to-january-2026/personal-independence-payment-official-statistics-to-january-2026

Data on PIP Mandatory Reconsideration clearances and registrations is available on Stat-Xplore (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml). An account is not required to use Stat-Xplore, the ‘Guest Login’ feature gives instant access to the main functions. Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore is also available here: Personal Independence Payment data on Stat-Xplore: user guide - GOV.UK.

The relevant information can be found in the ‘PIP MR Clearances’ and ‘PIP MR Registrations’ data.