A government policy requiring Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) staff to reject 80 per cent of benefit appeals has been condemned by the civil service union PCS.

Disability organisations have also slammed the ‘outrageous target’.

The furore follows a Freedom of Information request that revealed staff conducting mandatory reconsideration reviews were subject to a “key performance indicator” that said “80 per cent of the original decisions are to be upheld”. Mandatory reconsiderations are the first step in an appeal against decisions on jobseeker’s allowance, the disability living allowance and other key benefits like employment and support allowance. The DWP says claimants ‘normally’ cannot progress to the next stage, a tribunal, without one. Between April 2016 and March this year, 87 per cent of mandatory reconsiderations resulted in the original decision being upheld.

PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka, whose union represents DWP staff, said: “Our members making the original decisions are under pressure to churn out numbers with little regard to accuracy or fairness of the decision. The 80 per cent target is not used to make sure that 4 out of 5 decisions are correct, but is used to put pressure on people carrying out the mandatory reconsideration to simply ‘rubber stamp’ the original decision. The fact that the DWP continues to lose many of the cases that are considered independently by the appeal tribunal, shows that it continues to fail vulnerable people who should be receiving benefit payments.” Phil Reynolds, of Parkinson’s UK, said: “These shocking findings have uncovered a blatant disregard for the health and well-being of thousands of people with the condition, who are forced to go through a stressful appeal process to get the support they should have received from day one. There should be trust that the DWP are working towards making the right decision, first time. These outrageous targets must be abolished.”