Check claim details carefully.

TELLIT01

I was speaking to a former colleague of mine a couple of days ago. He still works for DWP on claims processing, thankfully that period of my life is now behind me.
They were informed recently that the minimum number of claims they are expected to process per day has been increased by 20%. In real terms that means they have less than 30 minutes for the end-to-end process i.e. to check the claim details, confirm entitlement, write out for additional information, chase up if the information isn't provided and finally put the claim onto the system.
This is inevitably going to mean that even more corners are cut than was happening when I was there (The old minimum number per days was viewed by most processing staff as being impossible to achieve if the claim was to be processed properly i.e. all checks done).
When concerns on this matter were raised we were actually told by local management that the number of claims processed per day was the main factor of interest to 'those on high'.
The result will be that more errors will be made, so don't just assume that the payment you receive is going to be correct, check and challenge if you have any doubts.

densol_2

Is that for processing PIP and ESA claims? Do they have to read all the evidence etc as well in the 30 mins ?

TELLIT01

I don't know about PIP, but that is the timescale for Income Support. When I worked on ESA those were typical times too.
These timescales are for processing the initial claim, this isn't anything to do with medical assessment which takes place after the claim is processed on ESA.
PIP process is different.