Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 17
6th Report - DWP Customer Service and Accounts 2023-24
Published 31 Jan 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee DWP Customer Service and Accounts 2023-24 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Written evidence from Sense highlighted findings from a survey of claimants with complex disabilities–49% of those surveyed reported that they could not apply for benefits without the support of friends, family or a support service. Sense recommended that DWP should work with disabled people to introduce clear standards on how to communicate accessibly.34 DWP said it wanted to consider any recommendation that would help it to be more accessible but emphasised that it put a lot of effort into trying to make its services as accessible as possible, including making sure its communications were available in all different forms of accessible format. 28 C&AG’s Report (customer service), para 1 29 Q 16 30 Q 17; C&AG’s Report (customer service), para 1.12; Letter from DWP to the Public Accounts Committee dated 23 December 2024 31 Q 16; Letter from DWP to the Public Accounts Committee dated 23 December 2024 32 Q 17; C&AG’s Report (customer service), para 3.13 33 Letter from DWP to the Public Accounts Committee dated 23 December 2024 34 DCSA0001 11 It also told us that it worked with other organisations to help make sure benefits were accessible, such as with Age UK on support for those claiming Pension Credit.35
From: Public Accounts Committee, 6th Report - DWP Customer Service and Accounts 2023-24 (HC 354), 31 January 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 6 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations in this response, but disagrees with the recommendation that it set out when it expects to meet its PIP processing target.
- On PIP claim times, the government disagrees with the recommendation, stating the department "has to balance speed against the risk of inaccuracy". It says the Health Transformation Programme will modernise PIP "in the longer-term".
- On ESA calls, the government agrees and says it is recruiting 160 colleagues by March 2025. It states that customer wait times for ESA enquiries "will be improved by September 2025".
- On counter fraud, the government agrees and says that from April 2025 the department "will begin progressive deployment of an additional 3,000 staff", expecting the full number to be in role by 2027-28.
- On machine learning, the government agrees and gives a target implementation date of summer 2025. It says the department "will support an in-confidence session" on the 2024 fairness analysis assessment.