Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

PIP Mandatory Reconsideration Decisions

Monday 5 February 2024 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 3 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Jessica Morden highlighted a case where a constituent's Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was incorrectly stopped for six months due to a form issue.
  • The Minister acknowledged the chaos in the Department affecting claimants and agreed to review the situation seriously.
  • The Department faced 294,000 new PIP claims waiting to be processed as of October, with an additional 445,000 claimants awaiting reconsideration.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Jessica Morden Lab Newport East
Benefits & Welfare
Context

A constituent faced difficulties in filling out their PIP review form, leading to a six-month delay and significant personal hardship. This highlights the systemic issue of delays in mandatory reconsideration decisions.

Question

In July last year, a constituent was not able to correctly fill out their PIP review form, which led to their payments being stopped. It took until last Thursday—six months from the mandatory reconsideration going in—for the payments to finally be restored. Because of the delay, my constituent fell into debt and became suicidal. Why are the Government not eliminating the delays that are letting down the most vulnerable constituents?

Answer from Mims Davies

I am very sorry to hear about the hon. Lady's constituent. Our aim is always to make the right decision as early as possible in the claim journey, and I would be keen to see the full details of that particular situation. On decisions, it is important to consider the context: 2.9 million initial decisions following an assessment have been made between June 2018 and July 2023; 5% have resulted in a completed tribunal hearing, with 3% overturned.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Specific ask about eliminating delays not addressed

How: Context

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Q2 Jessica Morden Lab Newport East
Benefits & Welfare
Context

There are significant backlogs in PIP claims and reviews, with a large number of people awaiting decisions. This affects hundreds of thousands of disabled individuals.

Question

As my hon. Friend the Member for Newport East (Jessica Morden) has just highlighted, the Department is in chaos and that is having a huge impact on claimants' lives. As of October, there were 294,000 new personal independence payment claims waiting to be processed, with a further 445,000 claimants awaiting an award review. As of November, 24,339 people were awaiting Access to Work decisions. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of disabled people left in financial limbo, with tens of thousands waiting to start work. What message does the Minister think these huge backlogs send to disabled people, and how does she finally plan to get a grip of them?

Answer from Mims Davies

I thank the hon. Lady for making the important point about the numbers. I agree that behind each of those is somebody we should be concerned about, and I am absolutely looking at this point. We are continuing to learn from decisions overturned by appeal, and we will continue to make improvements to our decision-making processes to help people to get the correct decision earlier in their claim journey, and to be able to work and have the support where it is needed.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Concrete steps not specified

How: Learning From Appeals, Making Improvements

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Q3 Vicky Foxcroft Lab Lewisham North
Benefits & Welfare
Context

There are significant backlogs in PIP claims and reviews, with a large number of people awaiting decisions. This affects hundreds of thousands of disabled individuals.

Question

As my hon. Friend the Member for Newport East (Jessica Morden) has just highlighted, the Department is in chaos and that is having a huge impact on claimants' lives. As of October, there were 294,000 new personal independence payment claims waiting to be processed, with a further 445,000 claimants awaiting an award review. As of November, 24,339 people were awaiting Access to Work decisions. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of disabled people left in financial limbo, with tens of thousands waiting to start work. What message does the Minister think these huge backlogs send to disabled people, and how does she finally plan to get a grip of them?

Answer from Mims Davies

I thank the hon. Lady for making the important point about the numbers. I agree that behind each of those is somebody we should be concerned about, and I am absolutely looking at this point. We are continuing to learn from decisions overturned by appeal, and we will continue to make improvements to our decision-making processes to help people to get the correct decision earlier in their claim journey, and to be able to work and have the support where it is needed.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Concrete steps not specified

How: Learning From Appeals, Making Improvements

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How accurate was this summary? (1 = poor, 5 = spot on)