Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the target time in which the Department for Work and Pensions aims to process mandatory reconsiderations for Personal Independence Payment applications.

The Department for Work and Pensions does not have a clearance time target nor does it have information about average clearance times.

It plans to introduce a clearance time target for all benefits, starting with ESA from April 2016.

It plans to incorporate information on mandatory reconsideration clearance times into the relevant existing regular statistical publications. However, before decisions are made DWP statisticians need to make sure that the data is accurate and fit for purpose. When a decision has been made and as each publication is ready, we will pre-announce the improvements in accordance with the UKSA release protocols.