Number of PIP reviews increases by 68% as new claims continue to rise

Details: Published: 09 January 2024

The latest quarterly statistics published by the DWP show that the number of claimants having their PIP award reviewed has leapt by 68% compared to the same period a year before. The number of new claims is also continuing to hit record highs.

New claims success rates

220,000 new claims for PIP were made and 220,000 were cleared in the quarter ending October 2023. This is an increase of 11% in the number of new claims made, compared to the same time last year.

46% of all new claim received an award of PIP, with 53% of those who made it as far as an assessment receiving an award.

Award lengths

For new claims in the quarter ending October 2023:

76% of claims awarded were short term (0 to 2 years)

14% were longer term (over 2 years)

8% were ongoing

Planned award review outcomes

Planned award reviews are those which the DWP require the claimant to have, rather than a review requested by the claimant because, usually, their condition has got worse

110,000 planned award reviews were registered and 110,000 cleared in the quarter ending October 2023.

The number of planned award reviews cleared has increased by 68% compared to the same period last year.

Planned award review outcomes for last five years to October 2023 are:

Award Increased 19%

Award Maintained 51%

Award Decreased 9%

Award Disallowed 21%

Clearance times

Clearance times for new claims are 15 weeks from start to finish, down from 16 weeks a year ago.

Once new claims are referred to an assessment provider, the waiting time has fallen from 11 weeks to 9 weeks from referral to a decision.

Mandatory reconsiderations

Over the past 5 years, 34% of mandatory reconsiderations (MRs) cleared have led to a change in award.

In October 2023, the average clearance time was 36 calendar days, down from the most recent peak of 79 in September 2021.

Over the past 5 years:

35% of completed MRs against initial decisions following a PIP assessment went on to lodge an appeal

24% of appeals lodged saw DWP change the decision in the customer’s favour before the appeal was heard at tribunal – known as a “lapsed” appeal.

Rising 16s

There is good news for claimants who transfer from DLA to PIP at age 16.

52% of rising 16s who registered a DLA reassessment claim were awarded PIP at the highest rate (enhanced daily living and enhanced mobility components).

Only 8% of the same individuals received the highest rate under DLA.

You can read the full statistics on the .gov website.

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Angelina · 10 months ago
I sent my review form back in April 2023, for a review due date if October 2023. I still have not heard anything? I have rung twice already and they just say it is waiting to be processed. It is now 9 months. What should I do ? How long does it take for a review to be processed? This is making my anxiety much worse.
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  Jacs · 10 months ago
  
  @Angelina just wait, I had my review form Jan23/return Feb23 for a review date of Aug22, I have my telephone health assessment 22Dec23 and received a text 12/1/24 review is complete and a decision letter will arrived in 2wks. I requested a copy of the HA report which I received last week also. Be patient! Having been to tribunal 3x I get you, the stress is awful but armed with knowledge is key and your friend as is the guides here, sadly I went to tribunal x3 over last decade prior to knowing about this website, last tribunal was 2021. Good Luck Angelina, deep breaths, they will pay you until review decision.
  
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Sue Meakin · 10 months ago
sent my review form back Jan 23 and had my assessment on 22nd Nov 23 & had a text to say report was ready & asked & received on 25th Nov 23. Had a text on 27th Nov 23 to say they are looking into and could take 8 weeks. Im on the 7th week and still waiting. I was awarded low mobility & high DL last time for 3 years but according to the report looks like i now have high mobility & low DL but i have become worse and noticed they have missed some things out!!! Maybe I will have to go to MR... waiting to see what they have awarded first. Its so stressful and i have been in a flare up for 4 weeks im so stressed out x
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Angela Pritchard · 10 months ago
I have been waiting for a decision on my review since the 5th May 2023 and all I get is a couple of texts to say we still have your review papers and will get to it asap so the DWP lie about how quickly they deal with claimants, the only good thing is that you don't have any money stopped while you wait
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  Ange · 8 months ago
  
  @Peter Entwistle I went to my GP and was referred gor a wheelchair. I could not use a manual wheelchair because of my wrists and so have an NHS electric wheelchair.
  
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  Peter Entwistle · 9 months ago
  
  @Jacs Hi jacs so I desperately need a mobility scooter to be able to get out shopping doctors appointment etc should have had a review last November but absolutely nothing rang PIP today and they can't extend my award until a review is done but it's not been triggered yet so back to being stuck in the house and relying on people to push me in my wheelchair I understand they are busy but to leave people without the minimum 12 months is awful because we need blue badge bus pass etc
  
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  Jacs · 10 months ago
  
  @Angela Pritchard hold on, I've just replied to Angelina's comment above as had the same and finally had my telephone health assessment 22Dec23 (letter arrived 6days prior notice) Merry Christmas but it was ok and requested copy of the HA report which I received last week and had a text from DWP last Friday review is complete, and decision letter sent in 2wks. My review date was Aug22, sent papers in Jan23, so its a long wait.
  
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  Gail denney · 10 months ago
  
  @Angela Pritchard I been waiting months and months but just get the same text message .
  
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Suzanne Oxby · 10 months ago
Suzanne Oxby
I was on the highest award with DLA for mobility, and upon changing to PIP, to my astonishment it was reduced to middle rate. I had masses of paper medical evidence of operations, MRIs, Xrays etc yet they said that the medication I was on was sufficient evidence to decide my entitlement.
The woman who came out to assess me wrote down a lot of lies during the assessment. In hindsight I should have challenged the decision, but didn’t think I would be believed. I waited until I was 67 to ask for them to look at my award again. They
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  Judy Thompson · 9 months ago
  
  @Suzanne Oxby The same thing happened to us. My husband lost his higher rate mobility in 2016 even though he had been on it for 10 years. When his conditions were considerably worse we thought the same as you, that we could get higher rate again. Not after you reach retirement age! This really needs to be made more publicly known. I am sure many others have fallen into this trap too. We feel for you.
  
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  Jill · 9 months ago
  
  @Richard I had my carer with me at this interview. We were both taken aback by the contents of the assessment report. We didn't know what to do about it.
  
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  Suzanne Oxby · 10 months ago
  
  @Suzanne Oxby What happened to the rest of my post? 🙂 After 65 they say they cannot increase the award as it’s the Law. I was reassessed by a much nicer person, but this is what they told me , even though they could see that I am much worse. It’s soo wrong, They should Never have taken the higher rate from me. Now I have multiple spinal fractures and can only walk a few steps with 2 sticks. I am
  
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  Richard · 10 months ago
  
  @Jill Always have a witness at any assessment such as a carer, family member, or friend. If they have pre-propagated your assessment (filled in their forms before even seeing or speaking to you) then you can dispute the decision with a Mandatory reconsider ation.
  
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  Jill · 10 months ago
  
  @Suzanne Oxby Hi Suzanne,
  I experienced something very similar to you on changing from a DLA lifetime award to PIP in 2019. I had masses of medical evidence from after 2012 when I got my DLA award to 2019 and duly sent it all in. I don't understand why the DWP asks a claimant to ensure everything is included when applying for PIP when the DWP only allow their assessors 10 minutes to read a claimant's application. My interviewer- a mental health nurse - told me this on entering the room. She couldn't have read even an tenth of my application based mainly on Fibromyalgia in 10 mins.
  When I received the assessor's results & my award, reduced from higher DLA to lower care & mobility, I thought I'd been sent someone else's results. There was no point in her meeting with me, as she could have just made up the report without a meeting! There were lies upon lies in her account of me, including an A4 list of results of a so called physical examination that 'took place' in the 40 minute interview, which didn't happen at all. How could a mental health nurse take physical measurements that take years of training to take correctly? My osteopath said she had taken a copy of a list of normal degrees of limb movements from a text book & applied it to me. My osteopath repeated the same list and recorded the results - it took him an hour alone just to do this - and I submitted it on appeal with a letter from him saying in no circumstances should the original list of movements from my interview be used in my appeal, but to use the correct ones I had sent in from him. The DWP ignored his measurements, harking back to basing my award on the incorrect info from the assessor's account based on lies.
  How can I fight lies? It's like trying to capture fog. Impossible! This experience was such a negative one that it triggered my long term mental health conditions I had been managing to cope with for the last 18 years. The results and the assessment results sent me into an all time low. I lost it and attempted to take my life.
  On appeal to the tribunal, the DWP finally granted me a month before hand, the enhanced award for both care & Mobility, but put me, with a lifelong chronic illness diagnosed in 2007 (& on a DLA lifetime award), on a 2 yearly review! I have been incredibly anxious in the last 18 months at the thought of going through all this again. I just can't face another interview, knowing there were so many lies in the assessor's results last time.
  I submitted my PIP forms a 2nd time in Sept 2023 and am still waiting the award. I phoned the DWP PIP phone line at the start of Jan 24, and was told they had received my application and that it was with the PIP team, waiting to be sent to another team who decide whether I need another interview or not. From whay I have read, I believe PIP applications are taking months to re-assess. This has raised my anxiety to top notch.
  I didn't complain about the assessor in 2019 because I intended to appeal all the way. I thought by making a complaint, it might be held against me negatively at the time. This situation with applying for PIP on a regular basis is dreadful and affects my mental & physical health so badly.
  
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John · 10 months ago
What isn't quite clear from the article is what proportion of the 68% increase in PIP reviews are being carried out with claiments 'earlier than the date of the their stated PIP expiry', as written in their original PIP award letter? Or does it mean that those who have gone past that date are being reviewed more quickly than before?
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  Kimchi · 9 months ago
  
  @John My award is not up for a review for another 3 years and I am going through reassessment. So I gather lots are being reassessed who were receiving PIP for around 10 years
  
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winniewaterslade · 10 months ago
I sent off the form for my PIP review on 4th April 2023. I am still waiting for the outcome over nine months later. I already suffer from generalised anxiety disorder among other things, and these reviews just make me worse. Having to wait this long is simply torture. I get the occasional text telling me they still have my review form and they will get to it when they can. Imagine if it was the other way around.
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  Jw · 8 months ago
  
  @Melanie I sent my form off recently and received text today saying they have got it etc but judging by all comments I suppose there will be a delayed response glad yours was extended that's really good fingers crossed it happens for most
  
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  Melanie · 10 months ago
  
  @winniewaterslade Hi Winnie
  
  I sent my review back in feb 23 and got a letter in November saying my awarded was been extended another 12mths because of the back log. I then received a text stating that my awarded had been looked at and I will receive a letter and low and behold I was awarded same for 3 years. I would advise you to phone them that's what I did. hope this helps.
  
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trb10 · 10 months ago
That has always been the case. Attendance allowance is basically the care component of PIP/DLA. Hence why post pension age people can only claim AA for the first time and not PIP. If you were awarded PIP before retirement age then assuming your reviews maintain the award then you will remain on PIP.
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June Ferguson · 10 months ago
I have just had my review for which I kept my award.
I had also hoped to get some mobility component as my mobility is worse than it was. I have had mobility problems for over 20 years but it has got worse over the past 5 years.
I have only just discovered that once you get to pension age you cannot get the mobility component anymore.
The government had kept that change in the awards very quiet.
I have talked to other people about it and they are as shocked as am I.
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  Kerrie moran · 9 months ago
  
  @WenJay Hi I sent my review june2o23 July got letters saying forms not received money would be stopped I phoned pip and said they had been sent can't help royal mail Fortunately they resent and had to post recorded delivery money restarted once they had them Stil waiting on review diiscion
  
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  Andy · 9 months ago
  
  @Judy Thompson Hi Judy would you know with regards to mobility, is the date taken from when they receive the completed form, which in my case was two months prior to reaching 66. Or is it taken from when one is finally assessed please.
  
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  Judy Thompson · 9 months ago
  
  @Andrew If you are on the higher rate of mobility prior to reaching your retirement age, then you can stay on it at renewal. The law now states that you cannot be moved to the highest rate of mobility after retirement unless you were on it prior to reaching retirement age. The care element is not effected in the same way. Totally wrong of the government to do this!
  
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  Andrew · 10 months ago
  
  @June Ferguson Hi June
  I am not sure that is correct, I am a pensioner and I have multiple Issue, I had my review last October and was given a 10year on going award I got the higher rate in both categories. On a side note I must give credit where it is due yes the DWP were months late with the review but the nurse who did the telephone review was very good even to the point of promoting me on medicine I am taking that I forgot to mention at the end I asked how long things would take she told me upto 8 weeks (it too two) but she volunteered that I had nothing to worry about, so not all interviewers are the same. Could someone from the website confirm who is correct here please, Can Mobility be given to Pensioners?
  
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  WenJay · 10 months ago
  
  @June Ferguson I was sent my review forms in December 22. These were returned on time (within the extension I had to ask for due to the forms being caught up in postal strikes and Christmas). I had a text to say they had received them. Three days later I had a letter saying my claim had been ended as I hadn’t returned my firms in time. Devastated, as I had just picked up my new Motability car that I had waited over a year for, I called them. They asked if I wanted to do a mandatory reconsideration. Furious I asked to speak to a manager. Eventually I was put onto a case manager. She looked and said that yes they had got the papers but that they were late hence the letter. At this point I said I had a proof of posting dated 15 days before that and photographic evidence too. Long silence. ‘We may have got behind scanning in the papers so I’ll re instate your claim’ !!! Great. However because it had been stopped my husband lost his careers allowance and my motability payments stopped too. It took 3 months to untangle that mess and get everything back up and paying again. Fortunately motability were amazing and understood the issues so I didn’t have to return my car.
  Fast forward to October 23. My award was about to run out and still nothing from them. My blue badge is dependent on the award so that was running out too. Eventually I phoned up and after 78 minutes on hold (!!!!) I got through. Nice man I spoke to looked at my claim and said he would extend my claim for a year as it still hadn’t been looked at so I would be able to renew my badge and continued benefit payments.
  I still haven’t heard from them so still in limbo.
  Over this time both my physical and mental health have declined significantly and I put much of that down to the stress of the claim as it’s now 14 months since this all started. I shake every time I see a letter that may be from them. So many others must be in the same boat as me. Who knows when it will be over….
  
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