Written Question

Personal Independence Payment

Wednesday 1st May 2024

Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what percentage of new Personal Independence Payment claims have been completed within the planned processing timescales by (a) nation and (b) region in each year since 2013.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Table 1 - Percentage of new claims that have been completed within the planned processing timescales by benefit.

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Jobseekers Allowance	88.6%	86.8%	80.6%	53.1%	82.5%	87.1%	67.8%	58.7%
Employment and Support Allowance	84.6%	85.3%	73.3%	96.1%	70.9%	42.5%	47.4%	39.5%
State Pension	87.9%	73.7%	86.8%	86.7%	76.2%	45.6%	72.0%	96.2%
Pension Credit	71.0%	55.2%	53.4%	44.8%	88.2%	74.3%	45.7%	77.7%
Disability Living Allowance (child)	96.8%	96.5%	96.2%	91.3%	92.1%	35.6%	4.6%	3.5%
Personal Independence Payment	85.1%	77.2%	72.3%	40.4%	23.0%	6.8%	38.4%	51.7%
Child Maintenance Service	82.8%	87.4%	88.3%	91.6%	84.3%	84.3%	79.4%	79.6%
Universal Credit			80.4%	85.2%	90.9%	85.7%	84.4%	TBC

Comments to note:

• Data has been provided for the years 2016-17 to 2023-24 (UC 2018-19 to 2023-24). Previous years requested are not retained centrally and the breakdown by nation and region for services except UC would only be available at a disproportionate cost.

• In the spirit of answering the question we have provided table 1 above.

Service Performance Context:

Jobseekers Allowance

• From the start of the pandemic until April 2021, JSA claims were subject to easements that meant face-to-face appointment was removed. In April 2021, Claimant Commitments and regular face to face engagement requirements were reintroduced.

Employment and Support Allowance

• ESA 2019-20 to 2023-24, the new claim process for New Style Employment and Support Allowance (NSESA) changed. In April 2020 a digital claim was introduced during Covid. Prior to this, as part of the new claim process, a period up to 10 days at beginning was never measured. With the re-designed process all time is included, so it is not possible to make a like-for-like comparison with the new claim process before April 2020.

State Pension

• Performance was severely impacted due to the need to repivot resource to other areas, such as Universal Credit, during the global pandemic. In 2021/22, resource was re-deployed to work through the backlogs. Investment in digital services in this area has also aided recovery leading to significant performance improvements in 2023/24.

Pension Credit

• 2019/20 was impacted by substantial spikes in claims following the BBC decision to remove free TV licences. Uptake in Pension Credit has been encouraged through campaigns and again led to unprecedented claims being received when entitlement was linked to additional Cost of Living payments. This created backlogs and impacted payment timeliness as these were recovered.

Disability Living Allowance (Child)

• Disability Living Allowance ceased in 2013 and is no longer an active benefit, it was replaced by Personal Independence Payment. Disability Living Allowance for Children continues to accept new claims and as such we have responded in respect of this benefit.
• Demand for Child DLA has increased in recent years and is significantly higher than pre-pandemic volumes.
• During 2020-21 we deferred case renewal activity to focus on processing new claims. Since then the service has had to service both high new claims volumes and the deferred renewal work which has led to longer processing times.
• We have increased the numbers of staff working on Child DLA to respond to increase new claims volumes, and clear cases in date order to ensure fair customer service.

Personal Independence Payment

• PIP performance represents a significant recovery compared to prior periods and the lowest average journey time recorded since 2018 (see published statistics)
• PIP New Claims demand is significantly higher than pre-Covid levels, despite the devolution of Scottish claims during this period.

Child Maintenance Service

• Child Maintenance Service application volumes have been sharply increasing with CMS receiving more than 50% more in 2023/24 than in 2021/22. This dip in performance over this time can largely be explained by this. More recently, the removal of the Application fee has also resulted in higher volumes.

Universal Credit

• Data has been provided for the years 2018-19 to 2023-24. Detailed data by local areas is available via Stat Xplore within the Universal Credit Published Statistics (Universal Credit statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)). Previous years requested are not retained centrally or published and the breakdown by nation and region would only be available at a disproportionate cost.

• The 2023-24 figures for UC are not available until May as per the Statistics Release schedule.

• Planned timescales for all benefits are listed in table 2 below.

Table 2: Planned Timescales for new claims (current methodology)

Jobseekers Allowance	Within 10 working days
Employment and Support Allowance	Within 10 working days
State Pension	Within 20 working days of State Pension entitlement date or 20 working days of Initial date of claim if claiming after entitlement has started.
Pension Credit	Within 50 working days
Disability Living Allowance (Child)	Within 40 working days
Personal Independence Payment	Within 75 working days
Child Maintenance Service	Payment within 12 weeks
Universal Credit	% Full Payment 1st Assessment Period

Notes: The planned timescales detailed above relate to those used for the 23/24 financial year. The timescales and methodologies to calculate them have changed over time to reflect new processes, technology and demands on our services.

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Select Committee

Transport for Wales

RRB0076 - Scrutiny of the draft Rail Reform Bill

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Document: statutory instrument (SI) (PDF)

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Special Report Apr. 30 2024

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Victims and Prisoners Bill
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Leader of the House

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1: Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd (XB - Life peer) This is an area where it is common ground that there is devolution. - Speech Link
2: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (XB - Life peer) Welsh Government to be part of the scheme, but it is similarly sensible that the legislation reflects devolution - Speech Link

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