The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is letting down disability benefit claimants and putting them at risk of greater hardship, a damning new report has found.
Customer service across the whole department is also criticised alongside the rising issue of underpayments in the wide-ranging document from the Commons cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Chaired by Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the committee make several recommendations to improve the DWP. These include improving call waiting times, better tackling fraud and reducing underpayments which reached £4 billion in 2023/24.
Their report warns that disability benefit claimants are receiving an ‘unacceptably poor’ level of of service from the DWP, as the department continues to misunderstand the experience vulnerable customers.
It finds that only half of new claims of the health-related personal independence payment (PIP) benefit are processed time, compared to 96 per cent of state pension applications, for example.
open image in gallerySecretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall will announce a package of measures to overhaul the welfare system next week (PA) (PA Wire)
Meanwhile, claimants of another health-related benefit, employment and support allowance (ESA) are waiting an average of 30 minutes to speak to a DWP agent, it finds, compared to just two minutes for Universal Credit claimants.
The issue of long waiting times is also exacerbating the level of underpayments, the report adds. This is because many claimants of health-related benefits need to call the DWP to report a change of circumstances that would qualify them for a higher rate of payment – but these calls too often go unanswered.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chair of the committee, said: “Our report’s disheartening findings illustrate the stark disparity of experience between claimants for disability benefit and other users of the system. In some cases, claimants are literally calling for help and receiving no answer, resulting in increasing risks to their financial security.
“The British public would be forgiven for thinking the state is AWOL just when it needs it most. The DWP must do more to ensure that claimants are reunited with the money to which they are entitled, as well as to understand the needs of vulnerable claimants.”
open image in gallery(PA Wire)
The report comes ahead of Labour plans to reform health and disability benefits in the UK as ministers say the number of people claiming them – currently around 4.2 million – has become unsustainable. A paper laying out the planned changes is set to be revealed in the coming months.
Richard Kramer, Chief Executive of the national disability charity Sense, said: “It sadly comes as no surprise to Sense that the Public Accounts Committee has found the DWP’s treatment of disabled people ‘unacceptable’. We’ve been told again and again by disabled people that getting the help they’re entitled to has been an ordeal. In our research, half of people with complex disabilities said the benefits application process made the impact of their condition worse – it shouldn’t be like this.
“Disabled people have been paying the price of a broken benefits system for far too long. Sense is calling on the Government to use the upcoming Health and Disability Green Paper to make sure the welfare system allows disabled people to apply for benefits independently and with dignity.”
The PAC report also finds that £9.5 billion of benefit expenditure was overpaid in 2023/24, recommending the DWP set out how it intends to use the £110 million it was allocated in the Autumn Budget to tackle fraud.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We have reduced phoneline waiting times and are providing tailored help for customers with additional needs while also uprating benefits by 1.7% this April to ensure that customers get all the support they are entitled to.
“The report does not consider that we are already taking action on fraud and error through our new Fraud Error & Recovery Bill which will help us protect claimants by stopping errors earlier alongside saving an estimated £1.5 billion of taxpayer money over the next five years.”