DWP disability benefits ‘unacceptable’ says new report

The Department of Work and Pensions took on average 26 minutes and 53 seconds to answer calls from employment and support allowance (ESA) claimants in the year to March 2024, the Public Accounts Committee said.

This was unacceptable, compared with an average wait of only two minutes and 45 seconds for universal credit claimants.

The committee concluded claimants of disability benefit in particular “are receiving an unacceptably poor service”, including time taken to process their claims.

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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.”

Committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said in some cases people “are literally calling for help and receiving no answer”, and said the public “would be forgiven for thinking the state is Awol (absent without leave) just when it needs it most”.

Sir Geoffrey said: “Our report’s disheartening findings illustrate the stark disparity of experience between claimants for disability benefit and other users of the system.”

He urged the DWP to “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”.

The report also highlighted “unacceptably high” levels of errors in the system.

In the year to March 2024, £9.5 billion of benefit expenditure – which equates to 6.7% and excludes state pension was overpaid, up from £8.2 billion (6.6%) in the previous 12 months.

Underpayments also rose, from claimants getting an estimated £3.5 billion (1.5%) than they were eligible for in the year to March 2023, to £4.2 billion less (1.6%) in the year to March 2024.

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Sir Geoffrey said: “We are also as concerned at the picture of growing underpayments as we are with overpayments, and have little sympathy for the DWP’s argument that this rise is driven by a growing propensity for fraud in society.

“This amounts to saying that the DWP’s job is too hard to do well – not a defence that this committee is prepared to accept.”

Among its recommendations, the committee called on the department to:

• set out how it will improve its speed in answering calls from ESA claimants
• to ensure people get what they are entitled to by making it easier for claimants to provide updates on changes of circumstances
• and to set out how it will use the extra £110 million it received in the autumn budget to counter fraud and reduce overpayment rates.

The committee also warned of the potential negative impact on vulnerable customers of the department’s use of artificial intelligence (AI), with Sir Geoffrey saying “the onus is also on the DWP to prove it is using these powerful tools in a safe and fair manner”.