Senior Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials have told MPs that a 90 per cent target now applies to major benefits including Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Attendance Allowance, Carer's Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and child benefit. The change follows questions about long waits for disability benefit claims.
Timely processing improves but timeframe extended
The Work and Pensions Committee asked the DWP about the time taken to process new PIP claims. The proportion of claims sorted out "in a timely manner" rose from just over 60 per cent in 2024/2025 to just over 80 per cent in 2025/2026. However, the department also increased the timeframe for what counts as timely resolution, from 75 days to 120 days.
Neil Couling, director general of DWP Services and Fraud, said it was his decision to grant the extra leeway. He told the committee: "When I came in to start my job in April 2025, I looked across and there were not standards for producing timely benefit awards. The PIP one was nonsense."
Why the target was changed
Mr Couling explained that the old target could be gamed. "Basically, I could have played that target—I know how to play targets as well as set them. I could have done 75 per cent of the cases and left the others, and I would have hit that target and you would all be saying, 'Well done. You're hitting that target.'"
He added: "So I set a 90 per cent target across all the major benefits in my area. Carer's Allowance, Attendance Allowance, DLA and child benefit all got 90 per cent targets. That is because you cannot game a 90 per cent target—I am an old operator here, so I know how to sort these systems out. It was not about moving the goalposts; it was about having goalposts that worked."
Six-month waits explained
MPs noted that in some cases, processing a disability benefit claim can take up to six months, and asked whether this is "acceptable". Mr Couling said there are good reasons for the long waits.
He told the committee: "The process involves assessment. The committee has rightly—I applaud it for this—talked about the importance of handling vulnerable people carefully, and with sensitivity and humanity, in this process. Fifty per cent of assessments are not turned up at—people fail to attend, often for good reasons. We allow lots of 'failed to attend' circumstances in the process, because of this vulnerability."
He said most of the wait time "is taken up in the assessment process and trying to make sure that we do not rush to an assessment".
PIP review and next steps
The Government is undertaking a major review of the PIP system, co-chaired by DWP minister Sir Stephen Timms. PIP supports people of working age with a long-term health condition or disability, helping pay for extra costs, with payment levels varying by how a condition affects daily life and mobility.
The review team is set to publish its final report with recommendations to the Government in November 2026. Ministers will then prepare a white paper and legislation to enact any policy changes, expected to come out next year.
