Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the average time it takes his Department to respond to enquiries about Personal Independence Payments.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) has experienced unprecedented levels of new claims from customers in recent months and, as a result, we have seen increased call traffic.

We are currently in the process of recruiting additional resource into telephony, so that we can increase the number of calls answered and reduce current wait times.

The average speed of answer (ASA) for May was 40 minutes and 43 seconds - however, this may vary at different times of the day.

The average speed of answer (ASA) figures relate to the enquiries line only and does not impact customers being able to make new claims or raise a dispute.

Additional information:

ASA from January 2023 – May 2023 is as follows: