Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will provide guidance to customer service teams to ensure that written responses are available upon request.

Customers can contact DWP by telephone or post, face to face and via digital channels.

DWP continues to develop services that are easy to find and navigate, ensuring that the people feel confident and protected when they are relying on us.

The department is modernising to allow customers to interact with the department across multiple channels and in a way that suits them, enabling customers to self-serve online, while retaining non-digital channels for those that need them, avoiding digital exclusion and ensuring that everyone gets the level of support they need. Of course, if a customer cannot access digital services and specifically requests a written response, the department will provide this.

Developing secure digital channels for both the customer and the department is a key foundation of the work to modernise its services and using email as an outbound channel to communicate with customers is being progressed, the department is developing more secure and effective inbound digital channels for customers to use.