Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average waiting time for Personal Independence Payment assessments.

These figures can be found at part 6 of the Personal Independence Payment: Official Statistics to July 2024 and are published quarterly as part of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) statistics on GOV.UK.

As of July 2024, clearance times for normal rules new claims are 15 weeks “end to end” (from registration to a decision being made) and 10 weeks from the assessment provider (AP) referral to the DWP decision on entitlement.

The clearance times in July 2023 were 15 weeks and 10 weeks respectively. The clearance times peaked in August 2021 at 26 weeks “end to end” (from registration to a decision being made) and 21 weeks from the AP referral to the decision.

This was partly because claims that had been allowed a longer deadline for return of the PIP 2 form during the period late February to late May 2021 were reaching clearance, and partly because priority in some areas was given to claims that had been waiting longer for processing due to the COVID-19 disruption.