Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the (a) length in number of applicants and (b) duration of time of the backlog in Personal Independence Payment awards for appeals where a decision was previously made.

As of April 2025, a total of 8,900 appeals are currently in progress. This figure has been rounded to the nearest 100.

DWP is not solely responsible for appeals wait time. Appeals are lodged by claimants with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS), which the claimant may take up to 13 months to do. DWP then have 28 days to respond to the appeal when notified by HMCTS. DWP will either lapse the appeal and overturn the initial decision if new evidence allows or uphold the original decision and provide a written response as to why the decision cannot be revised. After this the time taken to list the appeal is dependent on HMCTS, who run tribunal hearings.

For clearances made in the Financial Year 23-24, the median time between an appeal being lodged and DWP’s response was 5 weeks. For those cases who had a tribunal hearing, the median time between an appeal being lodged and tribunal hearing was 34 weeks.

Data for Financial Year 23-24 was used to ensure reasonable time has passed for an accurate assessment of the time between an appeal lodgement and clearance within DWP.