Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average duration of a phone call to the universal credit helpline was in (a) each of the last three months and (b) 2018.

Universal Credit is a 24 hour, seven day a week, digital service that allows claimants to manage their own data and account online at a time which is convenient for them. Via their account claimants can check their Universal Credit benefit payments, notify us of changes and record notes via an online journal facility. In addition, established claimants who call the Freephone Universal Credit helpline are connected directly to the person or team who are dealing with the case.

The average call duration for a person calling the Universal Credit Full Service helpline in each of the last three months was:

The average call duration for a person calling the Universal Credit Full Service helpline in 2018 was 6 minutes 16 seconds

The Average Call Time (ACT) measure is the average time between a customer being connected to an agent and the call ending.

Notes:

Data Source: BT - OPMIS and Historical Management Information (GI2 – HMI)

Outsourced partner data is included.

The data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution.