Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department calculates the timescale for decision in a case of mandatory reconsideration of a refusal of benefit from the date on which the claimant contacts his Department to dispute the decision by telephone, the date on which a mandatory reconsideration request is made in writing, or the date on which a request is registered and received by the DWP processing centre.

The start date for calculating the time taken to clear an application for Mandatory Reconsideration is the date of the telephone call initiating the dispute or, where it is made in writing, the date it is received at the department’s Mail Opening Unit. If the request is made by another method – for example in person – it will be the date of that contact.