DWP reveals huge PIP and DLA delays for millions of sick and disabled people

Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have revealed widespread delays to awards for sickness and disability benefits, with just four disabled children in every 100 receiving their payments on time in the last financial year.

This represents a massive fall in on-time payments of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) since 2016, when 96.8 per cent of children had their claims processed within 40 days. The information, released following multiple requests by Wallasey MP Angela Eagle, shows that this figure has fallen to just 3.5 per cent.

The government says that these delays are part of the massive increase in people claiming disability benefits following the pandemic, which prompted the announcement of a new crackdown on benefits last month. DWP Minister Paul Maynard said: “Demand for Child DLA has increased in recent years and is significantly higher than pre-pandemic volumes."

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He continued: “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.”

But disabled children are not the only group affected by DWP payment processing delays, with Personal Independence Payment (PIP) processing also taking a dramatic slide. With a large increase in claimants following the pandemic, the number of claims processed within 70 days has fallen from 85 per cent to 51 per cent, leaving thousands of long term sick or disabled adults waiting months to receive their first payment.

According to government data, spending on PIP has risen by 26 per cent since 2019. It is forecast to rise by a further 45 per cent over the next three years, taking spending on adult disability benefits to £27.4bn towards the end of the decade.

In a Work and Pensions select committee meeting last week, experts explained that this post-pandemic rise in disability, increasing from 16 per cent of the population to 23 per cent, was caused by a complicated rise in sickness from Type 2 diabetes, delayed mental health diagnoses and treatments, and the NHS' record waiting list for procedures like hip replacements.

Other benefits affected by delayed payments from the DWP include Employment Support Allowance, with more than half of all claims taking more than 10 days to process. Similarly, Jobseekers Allowance payments are only landing in 58.7 per cent of bank accounts on time.

For these benefits facing delays, all saw an immediate sharp drop-off in processing times following the pandemic, with more than 90 per cent of DLA payments being processed on time in all the years before the pandemic, then falling off a cliff to 35.6 per cent in 2021 and just 3.5 per cent at the present.

DWP bosses are blaming the delay in processing claims on the sharp rise in applications for disability benefits. Paul Maynard MP said: “The department has seen a sustained increase in applications and demand for DWP services as a result of the pandemic and subsequent cost-of-living pressures, as well as ongoing publicity campaigns such as Help for Households and Pension Credit take-up.

“Whilst we have seen an overall improvement in claims processed within planned timescales, and we expect that overall performance to continue to improve in the 24-25 figures, we acknowledge that across our services more needs to be done to improve the number of claims processed within the planned timescales.”