Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken is for a personal independence payment claim to resume after the claimant has successfully challenged a stop to their claim; what administrative stages his Department undertakes before resuming such payments; and what steps he is taking to ensure that the time taken to resume such payments is within service standards.

We do not hold the information requested about the average time taken, and this could only be collected and provided at a disproportionate cost.

In response to an Appeal decision the administrative stages for Personal Independence Payment are aligned with other benefits, and are summarised below:

Following the appeal ruling, and receipt of the case papers back into the Department, an appeals case manager reviews the case and the appeal decision.

Where the decision is accepted the appeal case manager will then progress to put the case into payment, including any arrears. This involves contacting the claimant to gather payment details if they are not held; and checking for any changes in circumstances that may affect the award amount - for example admission to hospital if the claimant is not currently receiving any payments.

Where the decision is not accepted (that is, an appeals case manager identifies there has been a potential error in law) they will request a Statement of Reasons from the Tribunal Chairman. This must be requested by the Department within one month of receiving the appeal decision. Once the Statement of Reasons is received it is reviewed by the appeals case manager together with the case papers, who considers if a challenge to an Upper Tier Tribunal is appropriate. This must happen within one month of receiving the Statement of Reasons.

There is no specific internal timeframe but we aim to deal with outcome decisions from PIP Appeals as quickly as possible.