Claimants who wish to challenge a PIP or UC decision are likely to have to wait around eight months to get justice according to the latest official statistics. PIP claimants will have waited almost a year from the date they made their initial claim.
In a written parliamentary answer, DWP minister Tom Pursglove revealed that the mean average time taken for a PIP mandatory reconsideration is 55 days, although 25% take 70 days or more.
For UC, mandatory reconsiderations take a mean average of 67 days, though 25% take 100 days or more.
The most recent tribunal statistics show that appeals take a mean average of 25 weeks to be heard from the date they are lodged.
This means that a PIP claimant is likely to wait at least 32 weeks from the date they ask for a mandatory reconsideration to the date that they get a decision from an appeal tribunal.
For UC claimants the wait is likely to be at least 34 weeks.
As a PIP claimant will have waited an average of 18 weeks from the date of claim to the date of the initial decision, the whole process will have taken at least 50 weeks.
According to our PIP Payment calculator, a 50 week wait for a claimant who got nothing initially but went on to be awarded standard rate PIP mobility and standard rate PIP daily living would lead to a payment of £4,292 in arrears. And this would exclude
And whilst a back-payment of that amount would undoubtedly be very welcome, it means that the claimant has had to manage without that additional income for almost a whole year.
