Speeches

Pamela Nash – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pamela Nash on 2014-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken was between an application being made and benefit paid for (a) attendance allowance, (b) bereavement benefits, (c) carer’s allowance, (d) disability living allowance, (e) employment and support allowance, (f) jobseeker’s allowance, (g) maternity benefits, (h) housing benefit, (i) council tax benefit and (j) pension credit in the most recent period for which figures are available in (i) Airdrie and Shotts constituency, (ii) Scotland and (iii) the UK.

Mike Penning

The information regarding when a benefit is paid is not available as this can vary from each claim depending on circumstances, payment type and frequency of payment.

The data that is available is the Actual Average Clearance Time (AACT) which is the average time taken between an application being made and the date the customer was notified of the decision on their claim.

Please see the most recent AACT data in the table below.

Claims Actual Average Clearance Time (AACT)

National Year-End 2013/2014

Scotland Year End 2013/2014

Attendance Allowance claims AACT

14.3

N/A

Bereavement Benefit Claims AACT

15.9

N/A

Carers Allowance claims AACT

N/A

N/A

Disability Living Allowance claims AACT

22.4

N/A

Employment & Support Allowance claims AACT

8.6

8.3

Jobseekers Allowance claims AACT

8.1

7.9

Maternity Allowance Claims AACT

7.3

N/A

Pension Credit claims AACT

7.15

N/A

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are administered by local authorities and not the DWP. Processing statistics for these benefits can be found at

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?publication_filter_option=statistics