Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 September 2022 to Question 47643, on Department for Work and Pensions: Staff, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the increase in her Department's spend on staff working on Mandatory Reconsideration between 2020/21 and 2021/22.

During 2020/21 approximately 200 staff working in the Disputes Resolution Service (DRS) in DWP, including those working on Mandatory Reconsiderations and appeals, were redeployed to other critical parts of DWP to support delivery of vital frontline customer and payment services in the Pandemic. Costs were attributed to the other parts of DWP e.g. Universal Credit, and not recharged to DRS.

For 2021/22 DRS people had returned to delivering Mandatory Reconsiderations and therefore their costs were attributable to DRS. DRS also recruited 52 FTE in 2021/22 to support Dispute Resolution Services.