Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to reduce the average waiting time on calls to the disability service centre for queries on (a) Personal Independence Payments, (b) the Disability Living Allowance and (c) the Attendance Allowance.

There are no current targets for the Average Speed of Answer (ASA) for calls to the PIP, DLA and AA telephone enquiry lines.

The average waiting times for the PIP, DLA and AA telephone enquiry lines for the month of March 2023 were:

PIP - 00:37:01

DLA - 00:33:36

AA – 00:02:11

DLA65+ - 00:06:22

We are currently experiencing higher than forecast call volumes to the PIP and DLA telephony enquiry lines. We have recruited additional staff onto our telephony teams and have on-going recruitment to further increase resources.

The average speed of answering calls within AA and DLA65+ is within acceptable levels.