Social Security Benefits

(asked on 26th January 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time is between a claimant requesting by telephone that a benefit claim form be sent to them by post and their receiving that form.


Answered by
Damian Hinds Portrait
Damian Hinds
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 2nd February 2017

The vast majority of our benefit claims are now made on line or by telephone. The total ESA claims we receive on a clerical ESA 1 is usually around 5% and for JSA claims clerical cases are issued in less than 1% of cases as a general rule. In all cases when a clerical form is required it is dispatched on the same day if the request is received before 12.30pm. Later requests are dispatched the following working day.

The majority of DLA & IIDB claims are issued by post and are actioned within a 24 hour period of the request. IIDB Claim forms are also held by 3rd party groups such as CAB, Asbestos Support Groups and Solicitors. Customers can also download both IIDB & DLA forms from the Intranet.

The majority of PIP claims are expected to made by telephone unless the claimant is unable to or finds it very difficult to use the phone. In these cases a clerical PIP part 1 would be issued and once the claim is completed and submitted, the PIP part 2 form is system issued overnight.

Income Support New Claims are normally made by telephone, in extraordinary circumstances a contingency process can be invoked to ensure that customer demand is met. Since January 2017 the contingency approach has accounted for 10 % of the total number of new claims made during this period. When this process is used, a claim pack is sent to the customer on the same day as the customer requests it.

All claim forms, with the exception of the PIP part 2 and Income Support claim forms which are issued by 1st class post, are issued by 2nd class post. The Royal Mail delivery standards for 1st class are 93% next day from their receipt by Royal Mail and for second class are 98.5% within 2 days.

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