Social Security Benefits

(asked on 12th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to introduce an escalation route for complex benefits cases referred to her Department by Macmillan Cancer Support and other advice services so that urgent benefits cases can be resolved more swiftly.


Answered by
Justin Tomlinson Portrait
Justin Tomlinson
This question was answered on 21st May 2020

We already have escalation routes in place. We have had assurance from Area Directors that escalation routes are open and working and have sufficient capacity. We are exploring alternatives to further refine the process.

We have previously advised Macmillan if they could provide specific examples of where a Jobcentre has not been able to support them or has not had capacity, that these could be shared with their National Account Manager within National Employer & Partnership Team in DWP.

In addition, we have now mobilised 10 senior safeguarding leaders who between them will cover all our regions, these roles are temporary and will be reviewed in 3 months. These leaders don’t replace any of our existing routes into DWP where there is a concern about a customer, but they are there to be the region’s escalation point if a solution cannot be found locally, or it is a serious and complex case. These leaders will also be active members of multi-agency boards in their geography.

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