Baroness: DWP’S £100m bill for appeals should be spent on benefits

MORE than £100 million has been spent by the Department for Work and Pensions on administering reviews and appeals against disability benefits in little more than two years, new figures show.

This is in addition to tens of millions spent every year by the Ministry of Justice on appeals – around two-thirds of which have been won by claimants in the past year.

The bill has prompted a Tory former minister to claim “something is seriously wrong with the system”.

DWP said a small proportion of decisions were overturned and most Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants were happy with their assessments.

But the department is also facing questions from the Work and Pensions select committee over the figures, amid claims it was not given similar information for its own inquiry into PIP and ESA.

Tory peer Baroness Altmann, a former minister at DWP, said the money could be spent on benefits for those who need them, rather than on the costs of fighting claims. “Disability benefits need an overhaul and, of course, we must not let people make bogus claims, but the extent of the appeals we are seeing clearly indicates that something is seriously wrong with the system,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the DWP said it was working to improve the process, including recruiting around 190 officers who will attend PIP and ESA appeals to provide feedback on decisions.

She added: “Assessments are a necessary part of the benefits system and everyone has the right to appeal a decision if they’re unhappy. A vast majority of people are happy with their assessments and only a very small proportion of all ESA and PIP decisions are overturned at appeal – just four per cent for PIP and five per cent for ESA.”

There is something seriously wrong with the system