Benefits errors 'in 20% of cases'

The Department of Work and Pensions makes errors in around a fifth of all of the decisions it makes on whether people are eligible for benefits, a new report has claimed.

The National Audit Office said while more than 90% of the payments it checked were correct, the DWP made errors in nearly a fifth of cases, such as failing to obtain all the necessary evidence or not correctly determining the facts of a case.

It said around 230,000 disputes over decisions ended in independent tribunals each year, and 40% of decisions were changed in favour of the individual.

But it added that the number of appeals against decisions had fallen by around 15% during the past four years and waiting times for appeal hearings had also been cut.

The report found that the DWP was meeting demanding timescales for clearing initial claims, but it took an average of 26 weeks to finalise an appeal.

It said the DWP had taken important steps to improve the quality of its decision making and appeals process, but added that they needed to do more to get decisions right first time and put errors right without consumers having to go to tribunals.

The NAO added that complex benefit regulations and inadequate IT systems were the main obstacles to improving the process.

Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said: "While more than 90% of payments are accurate, more than a fifth of the DWP's thousands of decisions each day on benefits contain errors.

"Although the number represents less than 1% of decisions, a quarter of a million people a year go to an appeal tribunal and 40% of these cases are changed in favour of the customer. Customers are also having to wait too long for the outcome.

"The department could not only reduce the number of cases where customers have to go through stressful appeals but also save money for the taxpayer, if they got more decisions right first time and put right errors effectively."

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