Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what backlog remains outstanding for DLA and PIP applications, and what measures are being taken to speed up processing times for DLA and PIP applications.

We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through Disability Living Allowance for children (DLAc) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner. Reducing customer journey times for our claimants is a priority for the Department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our service.

Between October 2024 to March 2025, the Department recruited and re-deployed in excess of 100 case managers to improve clearance times for DLAc new claims. Between 1 August 2025 and 31 March 2026, the Department cleared around 185,900 DLAc new claims, of which 68.3% (126,900) were cleared within 45 working days. In this time, the percentage of claims cleared within these planned timescales rose from 4.7% to 90.7%. More information can be found on gov.uk: DLA for children for claims cleared between 1 August 2025 and 31 March 2026 - GOV.UK

We have seen a decrease in PIP clearance times since August 2021 with the latest statistics showing that the average end-to-end journey has reduced from 26 weeks in August 2021 to 20 weeks at the end of January 2026. In addition to prioritising new claims, we have been working closely with our assessment suppliers to increase assessment capacity and reduce waiting times. These include recruitment and training of additional health professionals and a series of process improvements to streamline the assessment journey.