The DWP has responded to criticism by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) about its failure to meet personal independence payment (PIP) processing targets, by making them easier to hit.
The PAC slammed the department in its Autumn update for only processing 51% of PIP claims, rather than its target of 75%, within 75 days. It asked for an update for when more PIP claimants can expect to receive a faster claim processing service as a result of the Health Transformation Programme (HTP).
In response, the DWP has now announced that it is changing its target to 90% being cleared within 120 days. This means that they are now giving themselves three fifths more time to process just on fifth more claimants.
The DWP says that “it is committed to exploring opportunities to reduce journey times” whilst giving no further details of how this is to be done, with the HTP only bringing “longer-term strategic improvements”.
The department also gave more detailed statistics on its performance in 2024-25:
390,500 claims were processed within 75 working days, 50.9% of all claims cleared,
287,500 claims were processed after 75 working days but within six months, 37.5% of all claims cleared,
84,300 claims were processed after six months but within twelve months, 11.0% of all claims cleared
4,600 claims were processed after twelve months, 0.6% of all claims cleared
The fact that more than one in ten people wait over six months, and up to twelve, to get vital support and that there is no plan to improve processing times should be a source of shame to the DWP – but it almost certainly isn’t.
