A parliamentary committee has found that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is putting disabled people at risk with delays to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) applications and appeals. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) condemned the DWP’s approach to claimants, saying:
The government has no adequate short-term plan to improve delays in the disability benefit system.
Committee says DWP PIP waits are “unacceptable”
The PAC is responsible for ensuring that departments and projects are spending money wisely, but that their delivery is effective in serving the public. In the latter area, they obviously found the DWP lacking.
In the DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025 report, PAC said the waits claimants face for PIP claims to be processed are “unacceptable”. The department aims to have claims processed within 75 days, but even their own target for this is 75%.
However, they’re still failing that, with the report finding just 51% of claims were processed within that time. Many are waiting over a year. That’s before they have an assessment, which they have to wait for a decision on. Over a year of stress that their claim will be denied. The committee warns that these delays can push claimants into debt and cause them mental distress.
Shoddy service costs the DWP too
The report highlighted how piss poor DWP customer service is and the effect this has on claimants.
The quality of service that the Department provides matters because claimants rely on the accurate and timely payment of the benefits to which they are entitled to avoid or mitigate financial hardship.
But it not only affects the claimants. Their shoddy service also costs the department money.
We noted in our January 2025 report on DWP Customer Service and Accounts 2023–24 that poor service can have a range of detrimental impacts, including frustration, distress and disruption for customers, and additional cost for the Department as it, for example, has to deal with repeated calls from customers chasing progress
The January report referenced found that in 2023–24, 3.6 million calls went unanswered [page 12].
Solutions are already being backtracked on
As a solution to delays, the report pointed out that the DWP was planning to make the application process available online, too. This is apparently already being tested out in some postcodes and aims to process claims in 20 days.
However, the department is already backtracking on how much this would help. In 2023, they told the committee the online system would process 20% of claims by 2026. Yet here we are, and here it isn’t. So the date has now been pushed back to 2029. That, as the report agrees, is far too fucking long to wait.
A big problem with this plan, though, is the government’s IT system. As the report identifies, the DWP is still running on an out-of-date, hard-to-navigate IT system, which desperately needs updating. The department assured the committee that it will be “reducing reliance on legacy IT systems” by 58% over the next five years.
Ambitious plans, but can the DWP pull them off?
The department also told the committee of ambitious plans to revolutionise the benefits system. One would be a customer portal that they were able to use for multiple benefits. Currently, this only exists for Universal Credit. This would make the PIP process, in particular, much easier to track. However, there’s a lot to be sceptical about. As the report points out:
However, as we have noted before, major digital transformation programmes have often failed to deliver as intended, and government is struggling to modernise a legacy environment at the same time as harbouring a major ambition to exploit opportunities from new technologies such as AI.
Another idea to modernise the system mentioned in the report is for each PIP claimant to have a named caseworker. Their role would be to help disabled people understand the process, eligibility and evidence requirements. They would also be the main point of contact as well as the one who would explain the DWP’s final decision.
Of course they fucking won’t
In theory, this sounds much needed, but it comes down to who will be doing this job. Work coaches and DWP staff are stretched enough as it is. If this were to go out to contracts, as assessments do, there’s no guarantee the staff will have adequate training or even the fucking compassion to do this role. Once again disabled people will face more hostility in an already gruelling process.
Most troubling was their commitment to something many assumed they already had. The DWP admitted to the committee that it did not have an integrated IT system for PIP. This means that because so much of the process is outsourced to agencies, the DWP can only actually see a small part of the assessment process. Apparently, though, it’s developing a new system that would give them coverage of the whole process. Thank fuck for that.
These many failures make it even more ridiculous that the DWP is claiming all the horrendous proposed changes are for disabled people’s benefit.
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said:
“The summer of last year was consumed by debate around proposed changes to the benefits system, with government insisting changes to PIP would be mitigated by support for disabled people and people with long-term conditions to get back into work.
“Our report exposes the incoherence with which government made these arguments, while cutting the all-important support provided by work coaches which could help those same people access the labour market.
Imagine arguing for months that these vile cuts would help disabled people because they would be supported, whilst showing just how badly you fucking suck at supporting them. This government is so beyond incompetent, it would be laughable if disabled people’s lives weren’t on the line.
It makes so much more sense why they wanted to kick so many of us off PIP. More than anything, they were probably hoping this would mean they wouldn’t have to own up to their own failures.
Featured image via Nottingham Post
From Canary via This RSS Feed.