Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many mandatory reconsiderations of benefits decisions are awaiting processing as of 10 October 2022; what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the number of mandatory reconsiderations that are awaiting processing; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a clearance time for mandatory reconsiderations.

There are currently 90,738 mandatory reconsiderations of benefit decisions awaiting processing at 10th October 2022.

DWP are taking steps to help reduce the number of mandatory reconsiderations awaiting processing by improving our processes and correspondence to make the delivery of the mandatory reconsideration customer journey more efficient whilst still ensuring effective decision making and customer service. We have also increased our decision maker capacity by 470 full time equivalent staff over the last 3 months.

We have no plans to introduce a target clearance time. While we endeavour to make decisions without delay, it is important that a decision maker is able to conduct a comprehensive review of the decision being disputed to make a fully informed Mandatory Reconsideration decision.