Research and analysis

PIP administrative exercise completion statistics for LB (MaM) and LB (DaT) decisions, Oct 2019 to Sept 2023

Published 28 May 2026

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Policy background and introduction 

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was introduced in April 2013 and replaces Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for claimants of working age. PIP is a payment that is based on the functional needs of a claimant arising from a disability or long term health condition. 

This publication is concerned with an Upper Tribunal (UT) decision, known as LB, which has led to changes to the way PIP is assessed in Daily Living Activity 3. There are two parts to the LB UT decision: LB Managing medication and monitoring a health condition (MaM) and LB Management of a diet as therapy (DaT). 

Decision LB (MaM) 

From 28 November 2016 there was a change to the way the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) considers how a claimant manages medication and monitors a health condition. When help is needed with both monitoring a health condition and managing medication, this can, in certain circumstances, be accepted as ‘therapy’. 

The LB (MaM) UT decision is only applicable from 28 November 2016 until 15 March 2017. This is because amending regulations were brought in on 16 March 2017 which reversed this part of the LB decision and restored the original policy intent.    

Decision LB (DaT) 

From 28 November 2016 there was a change to the department considers management of a diet as therapy. When supervision, prompting or assistance is needed to manage the timing and nature of food and drink intake, as part of the regime to manage someone’s condition, this can constitute therapy. 

Administrative exercise 

From 15 October 2019 the department has been carrying out an administrative exercise looking at entitlement to PIP on the date of the UT decision to review whether affected claimants are eligible for more support under PIP. This included looking again at claims decided before the guidance was implemented for new PIP decisions for LB (DaT) on 17 June 2019, and some where the department did not award PIP. 

The department paused all activity on the LB administration exercise from the end of March 2020 until June 2021 in response to the coronavirus pandemic and prioritised services to citizens in most need of support from the department.   

The LB decision only affects a claimant’s assessment in activity 3, managing therapy or monitoring a health condition; cases that have continuously received the enhanced daily living rate were excluded from review. 

DWP has continually monitored the exercise from the start to check the decisions being made. Special Rules End of Life and deceased cases were prioritised and had a full review by a Case Manager, so they could be paid quickly. The remaining cases were reviewed in chronological order, starting earliest cases first.   

The department identified only a very small proportion of claimants were likely to benefit from having a review and therefore, decided to take a more targeted approach to the administrative exercise. Using case outcomes and medical conditions the department was able to identify cases more likely to benefit from a review.  

Under the MaM element of the LB decision a case review was completed for all cases where the claimant had diabetes or a neurological condition. Following a Test and Learn the department also wrote to cases identified as unlikely to benefit from a review, asking them to contact the department if they thought they may benefit. This approach ensured that claimants most likely to benefit received payments as quickly as possible.  

Under the DaT element of the LB decision and following a Test and Learn, the department wrote to the remaining cases, asking them to contact the department and ask for a review if they thought they may benefit. 

Another group of claimants (around 30,000) had their PIP claim decided by a First-tier Tribunal (shortened hereafter to ‘tribunal’). This was when the claimant had appealed the decision made by the department. The department does not have the power to change a tribunal decision on the basis that their decision is wrong in law. Tribunals are obliged to apply the law to all appeals, and to award claimants accordingly. Therefore, in these cases the tribunal should have applied LB to the claimant’s PIP decision, so they were not considered in the administrative exercise. We have not contacted these claimants.  

Purpose of publication 

This end of exercise publication presents DWP management information on the completion of clearing potentially affected cases as at 31 January 2024. 

Cases reviewed 

DWP management information at 31 January 2024 shows: 

• around 44,000 cases have been reviewed against the LB decision.

Where cases have been reviewed, the number of cases reviewed against each decision differs as not every case was to be reviewed under both decisions. 

DWP management information at 31 January 2024 shows, following a review: 

• fewer than 100 arrears payments have been made from the application of the LB decision.

DWP management information at 31 January 2024 shows, following a review: 

• around £188,000 in arrears payments has been paid out by the department from the application of the LB decision.

Cases with a tribunal decision 

Cases with a tribunal decision were either: 

• not included as part of the administrative exercise because there was no DWP decision to review and the tribunal should have applied LB to the claimant’s PIP decision; or
• cases where we wrote to the claimant and offered them the opportunity to ask for a review if they thought they were affected by the LB UT decision.

Tribunals have not been included in the LB UT decision. 

Mandatory Reconsiderations 

Claimants who wish to dispute a decision on the review of their PIP claim under LB can ask DWP to reconsider the decision. This is called a mandatory reconsideration (MR) and must be completed before an appeal is made and lodged with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS).  

DWP management information has identified that, as of 31 January 2024: 

• around 520 cases have had an MR cleared under the LB decision
• fewer than 100 cases have had a decision changed under the LB decision.

Notes about the data 

Source: The data used is management information from the PIP administrative exercise at 31 January 2024. A case is defined as a unique individual within a given group. 

Rounding 

All figures have been rounded as shown in the table. Some numbers may not sum due to rounding. 

Range	Rounded to the nearest
0 to 1,000	10
1,001 to 10,000	100
10,001 to 100,000	1,000
100,001 to 1,000,000	10,000
1,000,001 to 10,000,000	100,000
10,000,001 to 100,000,000	1,000,000

Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics 

The Code of Practice for Statistics (the Code) is built around 3 main concepts, or pillars: 

• trustworthiness
• quality
• value

The following explains how we have applied the pillars of the Code in a proportionate way. 

Trustworthiness – is about having confidence in the people and organisations that publish statistics 

Progress on the PIP administration exercise is based on DWP management information supplied through 2 sources:

1. a data capture tool built to allow consistent and efficient recording of case review progress in the PIP administration exercise
2. the department’s computer system used to administer the benefit

Quality – is about using data and methods that produce assured statistics 

The data presented on progress is partially taken from the data capture tool developed to accurately record progress and levels of arrears payments. Drop-down menus and validation checks assist in reliable data recording. Data recording checks are carried out by operational staff. DWP analysts have engaged with operational staff to ensure the quality of the data is fit-for-purpose. 

The data presented is also partially taken from the computer system used to administer the benefit. As well as assurance on design of business rules used for producing figures, value outputs have been sense-checked against other outputs for comparable periods. 

As figures are derived from a mixture of automated and manually collated administrative data numbers are provided as management information and not official statistics. 

Value – is about publishing statistics that support society’s needs for information 

This release provides a progress update on the PIP administrative exercise, together with context for those figures.  

In addition, it aims to reduce the administrative burden of answering Parliamentary questions, Freedom of Information requests and ad hoc queries to ensure timely responses to public queries. 

To support financial planning and management of departmental business, figures have been seen in advance by ministers and officials. This is in line with the Code, where pre-release access does not apply for releases based on routine management information – as covered in the National Statistician’s guidance. 

Future releases 

The exercise has now ended, therefore there will be no future releases of this publication.  

Where to find out more 

You can find out more in the following publications: 

• changes to PIP law from 28 November 2016 and 15 March 2017
• written statements tabled 15 June 2018

For more information on PIP please see: 

• Personal Independence Payment statistics
• DWP benefit expenditure and caseload tables

Contact information 

For press enquiries, contact DWP Press Office on: 0203 267 5144