14 per cent of rejected PIP claims decisions are overturned

Thu,2 May 2019
News Benefits

One in seven decisions to reject claims for PIP is eventually overturned, new figures obtained by the Disability News Service (DNS) have revealed.

The figures show that, of all the PIP claims rejected by DWP decision-makers in the year to June 2018, 14 per cent were eventually overturned because the decisions were found to have been wrong.

They also show that this rate of overturned rejections has continued to climb every year since 2014/2015.

Now they have risen again, to 14 year per cent of rejected claims in the year to June 2018, of which eight per cent were over-ruled at the mandatory reconsideration (MR) stage – where DWP civil servants review decisions, if requested – and another six per cent at tribunal.

The figures, secured through a DNS freedom of information request, could rise further as some appeals have not yet been heard.

And the true proportion of incorrect PIP decisions will be even higher, because many rejected claimants do not challenge those results, with

The DWP’s own research – published last autumn – showing that hundreds of thousands more claimants would have taken further steps to challenge the results of their claims if the system had been less stressful and more accessible.

The figure of 14 per cent is far higher than the statistics repeatedly used by the government to defend its reforms, with ministers often stating that about nine or 10 per cent of all PIP decisions have been appealed and only four or five per cent have been successfully overturned.

But those figures include the hundreds of thousands of successful claims, where a disabled person has received a fair decision and therefore has had no need to appeal.

This is a summary extract from the DNS article One in seven rejected PIP claims is overturned, DWP figures show.

The full DNS article is available @ www.disabilitynewsservice.com