Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time has been for mandatory reconsideration in each year since 2010.

The average processing time for mandatory reconsideration (MR) decisions to be made is:

1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015 - 28.4 working days.

1 April 2015 – 31 March 2016 - 7.6 working days.

1 April 2016 – 31 March 2017 - 10.2 working days.

1 April 2017 – 31 December 2017 - 11.2 working days.

The data relates to all DWP Working Age benefits apart from Child Maintenance and Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

The data is only available from 1 April 2014 because, whilst MR was introduced for the Working Age benefits in October 2013, the volumes from October 2013 – April 2014 (initial Appeals Reform roll-out) were small and so not reflective of normal trends.

The data has been measured using the Actual Average Clearance Time (AACT). This measures the average number of working days (excludes weekends and English Bank Holidays) between a mandatory reconsideration application being made and the date the customer was notified of the decision. Information is not available for Child Maintenance and PIP.

The annual figures cannot be directly compared to each other as different benefits have been included over time. Whilst all data is provided to 31st December 2017, Attendance Allowance (AA)/Disability Living Allowance (DLA) data is included from April 2014, Universal Credit (UC) from November 2014, and DLA over 65 data from February 2015.