Claimants are having to wait an average of over 7 weeks for a personal independence payment (PIP) mandatory reconsideration decision, which in the vast majority of cases will go against them.
According to the latest statistics released by the DWP, the average wait for a PIP mandatory reconsideration decision has now climbed to 51 days in April of this year.
For the same period last year the waiting time was 37 days.
The success rate at mandatory reconsideration stage is just 18% for new claims and 23% for reassessed DLA to PIP claims, meaning that the majority of claimants will need to go to an appeal tribunal to get a decision overturned.
The average waiting time for a tribunal according to HMCTS is 30 weeks, though this can be much higher in some areas.
This means that, on average, a claimant who challenges a PIP decision can expect to wait over 37 weeks to get a new decision from a tribunal.
