Some people are waiting more than a year to have their disability benefit claims processed, which risks pushing them into debt and poverty, MPs have warned.<\/p>\n
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) aims to process 75% of new claims for Personal Independence Payment (Pip) within 75 working days but in the last financial year only 51% of claims were processed within this timeframe.<\/p>\n
A report by the cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the department was providing \u00ab\u00a0unacceptably poor service levels\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
The DWP said that at the end of October, the average time taken for a Pip claim to be decided on was 16 weeks.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said the department always aimed to process claims \u00ab\u00a0as quickly as possible\u00a0\u00bb and an ongoing review into Pip would make sure \u00ab\u00a0it is fit and fair for the future\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
Pip – which is paid to people with a long-term physical or mental health condition – is the main disability benefit in England and Wales.<\/p>\n
It is not linked to someone’s income or whether they are in work and provides extra help with living costs.<\/p>\n
The number of people claiming Pip has been rising in recent years, with the benefit paid to around 3.7 million people.<\/p>\n
The PAC report said the long waits for Pip claims to be processed were \u00ab\u00a0unacceptable\u00a0\u00bb, with some cases of people waiting for more than a year.<\/p>\n
The DWP told the committee these experiences were not showing in its statistics but it acknowledged this was a genuine situation which needed to be addressed.<\/p>\n
The department is testing an online application process in a few postcodes, which it says has typically reduced processing time for claims by 20 days.<\/p>\n
It had previously told the committee it intended to process up to 20% of Pip claims using the new online service by 2026 but has since said it believes it can reach this target by 2029.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0This is far too long for claimants to have to wait to get a better service,\u00a0\u00bb the report said.<\/p>\n
The committee’s chairman, Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, said: \u00ab\u00a0Our committee received reassurances three years ago that improvements would have manifested by now; we are now told that they are a further three years off.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0This is simply not good enough for our constituents, who we know risk being pushed into debt or poverty by a department unresponsive to their needs.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
The report also raised concerns about shortening the first meeting Universal Credit claimants have with a work coach from 50 to 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
It warned that without mitigating action from government, \u00ab\u00a0claimants with more complex needs may not get the support they need\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
Last year, the government abandoned plans which would have made it harder for people to claim Pip, in the face of a major rebellion by Labour MPs.<\/p>\n
The government had estimated the proposals would have saved \u00a35bn a year by 2030.<\/p>\n
Instead it launched a review into Pip, led by Minister for Social Security and Disability Sir Stephen Timms, which is expected to report back by the autumn.<\/p>\n
The government has said the purpose of the the review is to ensure Pip is \u00ab\u00a0fair and fit for the future rather than to generate proposals for further savings\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
A DWP spokesperson said: \u00ab\u00a0We’re fixing the broken welfare system we inherited by giving claimants the support they need to move into good, secure jobs and out of poverty.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We’ve redeployed around 1,000 work coaches to help sick or disabled people who have been left behind, alongside the most ambitious employment reforms for a generation.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0These reforms are being delivered as we replace outdated systems through our ambitious \u00a3647m modernisation programme.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
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Some people are waiting more than a year to have their disability benefit claims processed, which risks pushing them into debt and poverty, MPs have warned. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) aims to process 75% of new claims for Personal Independence Payment (Pip) within 75 working days but in the last financial year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}