Recommendation 24

As part of the Programme, the Department wants to ensure that the new service provides “getting the decision right the first time more of the time”. It recognised this may mean it needs to spend “more time up front to get the decision right the first time”.47 When claimants are unhappy with the initial benefit decision they have the opportunity to appeal through a mandatory consideration and then ultimately to a tribunal. Between April 2018 and March 2022, the Department made 2.1 million initial decisions about applications for PIP, of which 0.5 million claimants raised a mandatory reconsideration. Around 15% of the initial decisions where the claimant was not awarded full amount of PIP payment were later revised – either by the Department through mandatory reconsideration or by being overturned at appeal.48 The Cystic Fibrosis Trust reported that sufferers who it had supported through the tribunal process had their case decided in their favour.49