How long does a Mandatory Reconsideration take?

A Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) is the internal DWP review you must request before you can appeal a benefit decision to a tribunal. One frustration of the process is that the DWP has no legal deadline to complete it.

Typical timescales

In practice:

• The DWP aims to decide most MRs within 14 to 28 days.
• Straightforward cases are sometimes turned around in a fortnight; complex ones — particularly Work Capability Assessment and PIP disputes — commonly take four to six weeks or more.
• If you have heard nothing after 28 days, contact the DWP to chase, and keep a record of the call or journal message. If the delay becomes unreasonable, Citizens Advice can help you escalate.

Remember your own deadline is much firmer than theirs: you normally have one month from the date of the decision letter to request the MR, extendable to 13 months only with special reasons such as serious illness. Our MR deadline calculator works out your dates.

What happens while you wait — and after

Whether payments continue depends on the decision being reconsidered. For most decisions, including PIP refusals and sanctions, any other entitlements carry on during the MR. If the dispute is about whether you qualify for the benefit at all, you may receive nothing in the meantime — you can claim Universal Credit or other benefits while you wait if you have no income.

Use the waiting time well: the MR is a full review, so submit any new medical evidence, witness statements or a diary of your daily difficulties — not just a statement that you disagree.

There are three outcomes: the decision changes in your favour (with arrears from the original decision date), it changes but not enough, or it stays the same. If it is not fully resolved, you have one month from the MR notice to appeal to the independent Social Security and Child Support Tribunal on form SSCS1. Tribunals overturn far more decisions than MRs do — around 60% of PIP appeals succeed — so a failed MR is a step, not the end.