Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the response times to queries made to the Child Maintenance Service by service users.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) are committed to delivering the best possible service to all customers within our growing caseload.
Through the Service Modernisation Programme, CMS is expanding digital channels and self-service options, including online tools like Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance and My Child Maintenance Case (MCMC), available 24/7. It has improved speed of communications via use of SMS, email, and clearer letters, and introduced online messaging for certain processes, with plans to extend this further.
Our telephony service is available to 8am to 6pm on weekdays to meet demand. We continuously monitor telephony performance and through this fully recognise that call waiting times are at times longer than we would like. To address this, we are working to improve the efficiency of our customer interactions through both the telephone and digital channels. We have introduced a Digital Assist Telephony Service, which has been a significant step forward in our mission to support and encourage customers to use our online services.
We restructured our call routing to make more caseworkers available to answer telephone calls. By promoting self-service options online and efficient call routing, we have freed up valuable resources to deliver a more responsive service and allow caseworkers more time to better assist customers who need to reach out to us via telephone.
CMS continues to exceed key performance indicators, including application clearances, change of circumstances clearances, demonstrating improved outcomes for customers.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Child Maintenance Service's hotline in responding to concerns raised.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Where a customer makes a complaint, including when an MP contacts DWP on their behalf, DWP complaints service standard (including Child Maintenance Service - CMS) aim is to contact a customer within 15 working days to tell them of the outcome of their complaint, or when they can expect a response if the complaint is complex and will take longer.
The Department actively assesses the adequacy of the timeliness and priority of enquiries received from MPs, which enables us to identify which benefit areas are generating the highest number of enquiries, the underlying reasons for these contacts, and the factors contributing to any delays in responses. Regrettably, higher volumes of MP enquiries, combined with a rise in more complex complaints which take longer to investigate, has caused some delays with our responses.
MPs and their caseworkers can contact the CMS via dedicated routes, in writing or by phone. Contact details are available on the parliamentary website. The CMS MP Hotline is available for MPs and their caseworkers who need to contact CMS regarding a general enquiry or a constituency case. This service is in addition to written correspondence.
The hotline operates Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, and is staffed by Complaint Resolution Managers. We aim to provide an immediate response to enquiries wherever possible. For more complex cases, we will arrange follow-up contact with the MP’s caseworker to discuss or provide additional information.
CMS is committed to delivering a modern, efficient service that meets the needs of all customers.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Child Maintenance Service's response times to MPs' queries.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Where a customer makes a complaint, including when an MP contacts DWP on their behalf, DWP complaints service standard (including Child Maintenance Service - CMS) aim is to contact a customer within 15 working days to tell them of the outcome of their complaint, or when they can expect a response if the complaint is complex and will take longer.
The Department actively assesses the adequacy of the timeliness and priority of enquiries received from MPs, which enables us to identify which benefit areas are generating the highest number of enquiries, the underlying reasons for these contacts, and the factors contributing to any delays in responses. Regrettably, higher volumes of MP enquiries, combined with a rise in more complex complaints which take longer to investigate, has caused some delays with our responses.
MPs and their caseworkers can contact the CMS via dedicated routes, in writing or by phone. Contact details are available on the parliamentary website. The CMS MP Hotline is available for MPs and their caseworkers who need to contact CMS regarding a general enquiry or a constituency case. This service is in addition to written correspondence.
The hotline operates Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, and is staffed by Complaint Resolution Managers. We aim to provide an immediate response to enquiries wherever possible. For more complex cases, we will arrange follow-up contact with the MP’s caseworker to discuss or provide additional information.
CMS is committed to delivering a modern, efficient service that meets the needs of all customers.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the Child Maintenance Service's stated response time is for MPs' queries.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Where a customer makes a complaint, including when an MP contacts DWP on their behalf, DWP complaints service standard (including Child Maintenance Service - CMS) aim is to contact a customer within 15 working days to tell them of the outcome of their complaint, or when they can expect a response if the complaint is complex and will take longer.
The Department actively assesses the adequacy of the timeliness and priority of enquiries received from MPs, which enables us to identify which benefit areas are generating the highest number of enquiries, the underlying reasons for these contacts, and the factors contributing to any delays in responses. Regrettably, higher volumes of MP enquiries, combined with a rise in more complex complaints which take longer to investigate, has caused some delays with our responses.
MPs and their caseworkers can contact the CMS via dedicated routes, in writing or by phone. Contact details are available on the parliamentary website. The CMS MP Hotline is available for MPs and their caseworkers who need to contact CMS regarding a general enquiry or a constituency case. This service is in addition to written correspondence.
The hotline operates Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, and is staffed by Complaint Resolution Managers. We aim to provide an immediate response to enquiries wherever possible. For more complex cases, we will arrange follow-up contact with the MP’s caseworker to discuss or provide additional information.
CMS is committed to delivering a modern, efficient service that meets the needs of all customers.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any ministerial redundancy payments have been repaid to his Department since 2019.
Answered by Paul Maynard
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with housing associations on the potential impact of the 53 rent week year on residents.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 18812 on the 19th March.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the impact delays in change of circumstance requests for Disability Living Allowance claims have on the welfare of those children and their families.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
In certain cases, delays may occur due to the gathering of evidence from the NHS or Schools but, where possible, we are aiming to gather this from the parent/guardian of the child to expedite this. We have seen a significant increase in claims, which results in us deploying our people accordingly to ensure we manage service across the entire business.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish data on the (a) geographical location and (b) age profile of people who have not claimed Universal Credit following required migration.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The latest published statistics which include geography and age breakdowns can be accessed at: Completing the move to Universal Credit: statistics related to the move of households claiming Tax Credits and DWP benefits to Universal Credit: data to end of August 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the document entitled Personal Independence Payment: Official Statistics to July 2023, published on 19 September 2023, what steps his Department is taking to manage increases in the number of new PIP applications.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Despite the increase in new claims, we have seen a decrease in PIP clearance times since August 2021 with the latest statistics showing that the average end-to-end journey has reduced from 26 weeks in August 2021 to 15 weeks at the end of October. This means that we’re clearing claims faster than we were prior to the pandemic.
This is because we are:
In addition, the Health Transformation Programme (HTP) is modernising Health and Disability benefit services to create a more efficient service, to reduce processing times and improving trust in our services and decisions. As part of this, from July 2023, a limited number of claimants have been able to begin their claim for PIP entirely online.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the 27.5 week timescale for completing change in circumstance requests for child Disability Living Allowance claims on those children and their families.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The average journey time for change in circumstances for child Disability Living Allowance is 13 weeks. In certain cases, we are experiencing delays in the gathering of further evidence from the NHS, however, where possible, we are looking to expedite this by obtaining it from the parent/guardian of the child instead.
We have seen a significant increase in child Disability Living Allowance claims and therefore need to deploy our people accordingly to ensure we balance workloads to manage the entire service.