Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children are waiting for over the 50 working day target for their disability living allowance claim to be processed in the latest period for which data is available.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does not have a target timeframe, but we aim to process Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claims for children within 40 working days, not 50. As published in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts 2023 to 2024, which covers April 2023 to March 2024, of the 186,200 claims DLA claims for children processed over that period, 6,500 (3.5%) met the planned processing timescales.

DWP has seen a substantial increase in claims since Covid-19, and this upward trajectory continues. This has resulted in increased pressures on early years services for children with additional needs and neurodiverse conditions, with gathering evidence from educational institutions and the NHS taking longer. We are maximising our resources wherever possible and have ongoing recruitment efforts to mitigate these challenges.

For further details, please refer to the DWP annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024 (HTML) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) available on the GOV.UK website.