Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2019 to Question 265490, what steps her Department is taking to (a) assess staff efficiency and (b) identify the adequacy of staffing levels to manage changes in mandatory reconsideration caseloads in the absence of data on staff levels.

With reference to the previous question regarding PIP mandatory reconsideration work; for new claims and award reviews, these are managed at a national level to ensure that cases which have been outstanding for longest are actioned first. This means that a claimant could have their mandatory reconsideration considered at any of our 12 sites.

Operational Managers are in place at all of the sites to ensure that mandatory reconsiderations are processed as efficiently as possible.

The staffing for mandatory reconsiderations in PIP and across all benefits is currently adequate and is in constant review to ensure caseloads can be processed as efficiently as possible.