90,000 Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Claims Were Not Processed Within The 10-Day Target

A recent Parliamentary question to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has revealed that 90,000 employment and support allowance (ESA) claims were not processed within the 10-day target

Commenting on the question, Rachel Hickman, Senior Parliamentary and Public Affairs Adviser at Parkinson’s UK, said:

“This finding confirms what we hear from so many people with Parkinson’s, who say assessment delays wreak havoc on their lives – vital payments are delayed, and a huge amount of stress is piled on top of handling their often already difficult living situations.

“We hope this confirmation of the staggering scale of the failure will provide further incentive for the Government urgently to work with us to improve the system and, by extension, the lives of thousands of vulnerable people.

“The Government has sat on its hands for too long – the time to act is now.

Frank Field, chairman of the Commons work and pensions select committee, said the problem was on a scale of "historic proportions".

He said: "I'm still gobsmacked at the size and the nature and the extent and the coverage of people that have been wrongly impoverished by the department getting it wrong."

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