PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Social Security Benefits: Appeals (24 October 2022)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) mean, (b) median, (c) longest and (d) shortest wait time was for processing mandatory reconsiderations of benefits decisions in the latest period for which data is available.

Asked by:
Mohammad Yasin (Labour)

The lower quartile, median, mean and upper quartile waiting times for processing mandatory reconsiderations for PIP, UC and ESA benefit decisions are below. To provide information across all other DWP administered benefits would incur disproportionate cost.

Note that information about the extremes of a distribution (e.g. the maximum clearance time) risks being disclosive. We would not release this information publicly. Therefore, we have presented information on the lower quartile, median, mean and upper quartile of clearance times. Please note, the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases. As such, the median is our preferred central measure for MR clearance times.

Table 1: PIP MR clearance times (calendar days), Normal Rules, from August 2021 to July 2022

Year	Lower Quartile	Median	Mean	Upper Quartile
August 2021 – July 2022	38	57	55	70

Notes:

1. Each PIP claim can have more than one reconsideration registered against it. The above includes all MR decisions (excluding withdrawn and cancelled).
2. The PIP MR clearance times are based on the clearance times from the point of registration to the date the MR was cleared.
3. DWP offers particular support for those coming to the end of their life, known as Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). This was formerly called Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI). Cases which are not processed under SREL are referred to as ‘normal rules’ claims. The status of claims as 'normal rules' or 'SREL' is shown as at the point of registration.

Table 2: UC MR clearance times (calendar days) from October 2021 to September 2022

Year	Lower Quartile	Median	Mean	Upper Quartile
October 2021 to September 2022	23	51	67	100

Notes:

1. Each UC claim can have more than one reconsideration registered against it. The above includes all MR decisions (excluding withdrawn and cancelled).
2. The UC MR clearance times are based on the clearance times from the point of registration to the date the MR was cleared.
3. This data on UC MR clearance times is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.

Table 3: ESA WCA MR clearance times (calendar days) from August 2021 to July 2022

Year	Lower Quartile	Median	Mean	Upper Quartile
August 2021 to July 2022	5	10	13	14

Notes:

1. ESA MR clearance times are based on the date when the Benefit Centre has decided that the MR received is a valid MR, having considered whether they can initially change the decision in the light of any new information to the date when the decision maker at the Dispute Resolution Team (DRT) has cleared and logged the final decision.

Notes

• Figures are for Great Britain only.
• Definition of Mandatory Reconsideration: Claimants who wish to dispute a decision made on their PIP claim are required to ask the Department to reconsider the decision, before they can lodge an appeal with Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service. MRs can arise for various reasons, such as omitting to tell DWP about relevant evidence during the initial decision-making process; this could include not returning forms required as part of the claim.
• Definition of Lower Quartile: The lower quartile is the value for which 25% of all clearance times fall below if you were to order the distribution from lowest value to highest value.
• Definition of median: The median time is the middle value if you were to order all the times within the distribution from lowest value to highest value.
• Definition of mean: The mean time is the value if you were to sum all the clearance times together and divide that by the number of cases. Please note, the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases.
• Definition of Upper Quartile: The upper quartile is the value for which 75% of all clearance times fall below if you were to order the distribution from lowest value to highest value.

Answered by:
Tom Pursglove (Conservative)
1 November 2022