Disabled benefit claim delays 'causing distress'

The Department for Work and Pensions has defended the new Personal Independence Payment, after a report suggested claimants were having to wait longer for their claims to be processed.

Margaret Hodge said the claims would cost almost three and half times more to process than the previous Disability Living Allowance system, and claimed the delays would cause "real distress" for vulnerable people.

However, the DWP defended the scheme claiming the previous system was "broken".

Read: Delays in PIP assessments 'reduce expected savings'

Delays in processing claims under the new Personal Independence Payment have reduced the amount the Government expected to save by £140 million, the National Audit Office said.

The backlog in cases have cut expected savings over the course of this Parliament, with the DWP now forecast to save £640 million a year by 2015, rather than its orginial prediction of £780 million.

Each new PIP claim - worth between £21 and £134 a week to disabled claimants - costs an average £182 to administer, compared to £49 under DLA, the report said.

However, the DWP said it still expects to achieve annual savings of £3 billion by 2018/19, with 3.6 million claims assessed by 2018.

Read: PIP delays causing 'real distress for vulnerable victims'

Delays in processing the Government's new Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will cause "real distress for vulnerable claimants", the Public Accounts Committee chair has said.

Margaret Hodge said claimants were left facing "uncertainty and potential financial difficulties", after the National Audit service found claimants were having to wait longer for claims to be processed than under the previous system.

"I was shocked to learn that, not only will Personal Independence Payment claims cost almost three and half times more to administer than Disability Living Allowance, they also take double the amount of time to process," the Labour MP said.

"The current backlog and delays in processing claims are simply unacceptable and will no doubt cause real distress for vulnerable claimants."

Read: Disabled people facing 'distress' over late claims

Benefit claimants face "long and uncertain delays" as a consequence of the slow processing of claims under the Government's new Personal Independence Payment, the National Audit Office said.

The head of the NAO Amyas Morse claimed the Department of Work and Pensions did not allow enough time to see if the assessment process could handle a large number of claims.

Mr Morse added:

Read: Disabled people facing 'distress' over late claims

Disabled people are facing "distress and financial difficulties" as a result of the slow processing of claims under a new Government benefit scheme, a spending watchdog has found.

The National Audit Office found that claimants for the new Personal Independence Payment, which will replace Disability Living Allowance, were waiting an average 107 days for a decision on their cases, rather than the predicted processing times of 74 days.

Terminally ill patients were found to be waiting for 28 days instead of 10 days.

A backlog of 92,000 cases had built up with private contractors Atos and Capita within six months of the introduction of PIPs in some areas of the north of England.

Read: How will changes to disability benefit affect you?