Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 21
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Published 9 Jan 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
As it has done previously, the Department pointed to the work it was doing to transform the PIP service through its Health Transformation Programme. It explained that, as part of this programme, it was testing an online application form which took claimants to the questions that related to their situation, making it quicker to complete. The Department said it was testing the full online process in only a few postcodes, but in those places it had, on average, reduced the time taken to process claims by 20 days, and enabled it to achieve its target to process 75% of PIP claims in 75 days.31 In 2023, the Department told the previous Committee that it had started to process applications from claimants living in specific postcodes in London and Birmingham and that it intended to process up to 20% of PIP claims using the new online service by 2026.32 However, during our evidence session, two years later, the Department 25 Committee of Public Accounts, DWP Customer Service and Accounts 2023–24, Sixth Report of Session 2024–25, HC 354, 23 January 2025, p 1 26 The Department for Work and Pensions, Annual Report and Accounts 2024–25, HC 995, July 2025, p 72 27 Qq 26-27 28 Qq 25-26 29 Q 30 30 Q 28 31 Qq 29, 40 32 Committee of Public Accounts, Revising health assessments for disability benefits, Third Report of Session 2023–24, HC 79, 29 November 2023, pp 7-8 and 10 13 said only that it believed it could reach the 20% target by 2029, when the programme is due to be completed.33 We think that this is far too long for claimants to have to wait to see an improvement in how their claims are processed.
From: Public Accounts Committee, 60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025 (HC 1447), 9 January 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 April 2026 (deadline 9 March 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with four of the Committee's five areas of recommendation and disagrees with the recommendation to publish regular jobcentre-level performance data.
- On integrating skills into the Jobs and Careers Service, the government agrees, naming "a key milestone" as bringing the National Careers Service together with Jobcentre Plus from 1 October 2026, with an update due in Spring 2026.
- On the shorter first work coach meeting, the government agrees and says it "will be undertaking a qualitative research project" to gather claimant insight, including feedback on the length and content of the meeting.
- The government disagrees with publishing jobcentre-level data, saying its view "remains that the right level to monitor performance is at a district and local authority level", and points to its quarterly Labour Market Insights publication.
- On PIP claim times, the government agrees and says it "will however write to the Committee to provide the information available as requested, by the end of March 2026".