Personal Independence Payment

(asked on 27th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2019 to Question 267733 on Personal Independence Payment: County Durham, if she will make it her policy to (a) establish and (b) publish a waiting time target for processing personal Independence payment mandatory reconsiderations.


Answered by
Justin Tomlinson Portrait
Justin Tomlinson
This question was answered on 2nd July 2019

There is no target in law for processing mandatory reconsideration (MR) applications. Decisions are made without delay, but the focus is on making sure that the decision under dispute is thoroughly reviewed.

We are engaging with stakeholders to explore how we can improve the MR process. We have also recently implemented a new approach in PIP which includes contacting claimants, where appropriate, to see if there is information that would enable us to change the decision ourselves at an earlier stage. To support this, we are investing additional time and resource for communication, evidence gather and review, which means that some cases can take longer. However, this approach supports our aim; to make the right decision as early as possible so that claimants don’t need to progress to the Appeal stage.

Introducing performance indicators - be they in relation to outcomes or the speed of clearance - would compromise the Department’s quality-driven approach. But as explained in my previous reply, from late May 2019 claimants have been advised that as a guide, and to manage their expectations, that they should hear from the Department within 10 weeks.

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