PIP Mandatory Reconsideration: How Long Does It Take?

Waiting for DWP to decide your mandatory reconsideration is one of the most stressful parts of the PIP challenge process. Your award may be stopped or reduced while you wait, and DWP does not give you a guaranteed date for a response. Here is what the data shows and what you can do while you wait.

Current Waiting Times

DWP statistics published to July 2026 report a median clearance time of 45 days for mandatory reconsiderations on new PIP claims and 46 days for DLA-to-PIP reassessment cases. Median means half are cleared faster and half take longer — some straightforward cases resolve in two to three weeks, while complex cases or those requiring additional evidence can take several months.

There is no statutory deadline for DWP to complete a mandatory reconsideration. Unlike the one-month deadline that applies to you when submitting the request, DWP has no equivalent time limit for processing it.

What DWP Does During the Wait

When your mandatory reconsideration is logged, a new decision maker — someone who was not involved in the original decision — reviews your file. They look at:

• Your original PIP2 claim form
• The healthcare professional's PA4 assessment report
• The original decision maker's reasoning
• Any new evidence you submitted with your reconsideration request

The new decision maker may also try to phone you or your representative to clarify specific points or ask for additional evidence. You are not obliged to take this call. If phone contact causes you distress, you can ask for questions to be put in writing instead. Declining a phone call does not invalidate your reconsideration.

What You Can Do While Waiting

Send additional evidence. If you gather new medical evidence after submitting your request — a consultant letter, updated GP records, a care assessment — send it to DWP referencing your mandatory reconsideration. If DWP requires further evidence to consider your request, it must tell you what is needed and give you one month, or a longer period it allows. If you do not provide it in that time, DWP may decide using the evidence submitted with your request.

Keep a daily diary. Under the fluctuating conditions rule, a descriptor applies if it is true on more than 50% of days in the 12-month period. A 14-to-28-day diary tracking your symptoms, what help you needed and what you could not do gives you evidence for a tribunal if the reconsideration does not go your way.

Check your other benefits. If your PIP has been stopped or reduced, check whether Carer's Allowance, the Universal Credit carer element or your Blue Badge eligibility are affected. Some of these are passported from PIP — losing PIP can trigger changes elsewhere.

What If It Is Taking Too Long?

If you have been waiting significantly longer than the median and have heard nothing, you can:

• Call the PIP helpline on 0800 121 4433 to ask about the status of your reconsideration
• Contact your MP and ask them to make enquiries with DWP on your behalf
• File a complaint through DWP's complaints procedure if you believe there has been unreasonable delay

An administrative complaint does not pause or extend your reconsideration. It runs alongside it through a separate process.

What Happens When the Decision Arrives

DWP sends you a Mandatory Reconsideration Notice (MRN). This letter tells you whether the original decision has been changed or maintained. DWP typically sends two copies — the second is for attaching to a tribunal appeal form if you need one.

If DWP changes the decision in your favour and you were underpaid, you receive arrears back to the date of the original decision as a tax-free lump sum.

If the decision is unchanged, the First-tier Tribunal must receive your appeal within one month after the date DWP sent the MRN. Ministry of Justice statistics show 67% of PIP appeals cleared at hearing in April to June 2026 were decided in the claimant's favour — so a failed reconsideration is not the end of the road.

Preparing While You Wait

The reconsideration wait is not dead time. Use it to build the evidence that will support either a changed DWP decision or a tribunal appeal. Our PIP Mandatory Reconsideration guide includes a reliability logging grid for tracking daily function, a PA4 audit template, and a submission organiser to keep everything in one place.

Free support from Citizens Advice, welfare rights services and Advicenow is also available while you wait.

See more England and Wales guides →