Personal Independence Payment
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the longest waiting time was for a PIP application in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sir Stephen Timms
We are committed to ensuring that people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner and reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the department. We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence.
The longest waiting time for a PIP application is potentially disclosive, and the longest waiting times recorded may not be accurate. Therefore, the 99th percentile is provided.
Table 1 – 99th Percentile of End to end wait time, for the last five years up to October 2024.
Year of Clearance | 99th Percentile |
2020 | 45 |
2021 | 47 |
2022 | 53 |
2023 | 44 |
2024 (to October) | 44 |
Table 1 – 99th Percentile of End to end wait time, by month for the last five years up to October 2024.
Month of Clearance | 99th Percentile |
Jan-20 | 40 |
Feb-20 | 37 |
Mar-20 | 37 |
Apr-20 | 43 |
May-20 | 41 |
Jun-20 | 46 |
Jul-20 | 47 |
Aug-20 | 51 |
Sep-20 | 49 |
Oct-20 | 52 |
Nov-20 | 51 |
Dec-20 | 47 |
Jan-21 | 46 |
Feb-21 | 46 |
Mar-21 | 42 |
Apr-21 | 42 |
May-21 | 42 |
Jun-21 | 44 |
Jul-21 | 45 |
Aug-21 | 47 |
Sep-21 | 49 |
Oct-21 | 50 |
Nov-21 | 49 |
Dec-21 | 49 |
Jan-22 | 51 |
Feb-22 | 53 |
Mar-22 | 54 |
Apr-22 | 55 |
May-22 | 56 |
Jun-22 | 56 |
Jul-22 | 54 |
Aug-22 | 54 |
Sep-22 | 53 |
Oct-22 | 50 |
Nov-22 | 52 |
Dec-22 | 52 |
Jan-23 | 48 |
Feb-23 | 49 |
Mar-23 | 49 |
Apr-23 | 46 |
May-23 | 45 |
Jun-23 | 43 |
Jul-23 | 42 |
Aug-23 | 42 |
Sep-23 | 43 |
Oct-23 | 41 |
Nov-23 | 40 |
Dec-23 | 41 |
Jan-24 | 42 |
Feb-24 | 43 |
Mar-24 | 42 |
Apr-24 | 42 |
May-24 | 43 |
Jun-24 | 42 |
Jul-24 | 43 |
Aug-24 | 43 |
Sep-24 | 47 |
Oct-24 | 46 |
Median PIP application clearance times are also available on a monthly basis as part of the PIP Official Statistics quarterly release. The latest release, with data to October 2024, is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/675bf09bb915d092055a01d8/tables-pip-statistics-to-october-2024-eng-wales.ods
Table 1A in this release shows the median average clearance times for normal rules new claims.
Notes:
- Normal rules new claims only.
- England and Wales only.
- Figures rounded to the nearest whole week.
- It would be disproportionate costs to investigate whether the highest recorded rates were genuine or the result of incorrect recording that was later corrected.
- 99th percentile means ‘longer wait time than 99 other claims from a random sample group of 100 claims’.
- End to end wait time calculated as the time from PIP registration to DWP decision.
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