Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce call waiting times on the benefit enquiry line.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP plans resourcing according to forecasted telephony demand in an effort to keep wait times down. Wait time performance and forecasted demand is frequently reviewed, and DWP is continually working to improve the service that it delivers. The Benefit Enquiry Line (0800 169 0310) freephone service which supports Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Jobseekers Allowance and Income Support, is delivered by multiskilled colleagues, who are able to flex between lines to balance customer wait times. We are aware that the line is currently experiencing high wait times for ESA enquiries, although these can vary throughout the day, and we are working to improve this position.

The Department is investing in a new capability that aims to better route customers to the right offer at the right time. This will reduce the time callers spend listening to a menu of choices and instead invite customers to say why they are calling, at the start of the call.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to increase the (a) efficiency and (b) accessibility of telephone services provided by his Department.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

As part of DWP’s Service Modernisation programme, the Modernising and Transforming Telephony Project was formed. The project is looking at technologies available to improve and support DWP’s future telephony demand. User research from customers, agents and providers is at the centre of their design and build approach. The first enhancement will involve the introduction of ‘DWP’s Virtual Agent’’ this will support customers through their telephony journey and best determine how to respond or help with their enquiry. The objective of this technology is route calls to the right person or support available at the right time and providing a better overall customer experience than now. Starting with Universal Credit; we then plan to introduce this technology further over the next 3 years*. In terms of accessibility, this technology has been fully approved to standards required and will not replace, but complement the pre-existing support available for those customers who require it such as Relay UK and Video Relay Service.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure its telephone lines are accessible to the public without incurring undue delays.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP plans resourcing according to forecasted telephony demand in an effort to keep wait times down. Wait time performance and forecasted demand is frequently reviewed, and where DWP’s telephony is delivered by an outsourced provider we use the Key Performance Indicator of percentage of calls answered which are published quarterly on gov.uk.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls to his Department were (a) received and (b) answered by service area in each of the last five years; and what the average wait time for such calls was in each such area in each such year.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP plans resourcing according to forecasted telephony demand in an effort to keep wait times down. Wait time performance is frequently reviewed, and where DWP’s telephony is delivered by an outsourced provider we use the Key Performance Indicator of percentage of calls answered.

The data below shows how many calls were (a) received, (b) answered and (c) average speed of answer for each service area in each of the last five years. CFCD data is only available for the last 2 years.

NBFH (National Benefit Fraud Hotline) – please note the line was shut down from April 20 to March 22 due to Covid.

April 22 to March 23 (WC 13/03) - Internal DWP team.

Average call waiting time: 6:13

Total calls received: 97,720

Total calls answered: 75,137

April 19 to 20 March 20 (Serco)

Average call waiting time: 38s

Total calls received: 123,341

Total calls answered 116,774

Sept 18 to March 19 (Serco)

Average call waiting time: 37s

Total calls received: 73,709

Total calls answered: 69,540

April 2018 to Sept 18 (Capita)

Average call waiting time: 57s

Total calls received: 70,959

Total calls answered: 66,070

Please note this information is derived from the Department’s management information designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has withdrawn the use of the (a) SignVideo Relay Service and (b) textphone number.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

I can confirm that DWP continues to provide Video Relay Service (VRS) to customers who require remote inbound BSL interpretation. All VRS is provided by our current supplier, DA Languages, via SignSolution. We do not use Textphone within the Language Services contract. We no longer use the former supplier ‘SignVideo’, referenced in the question.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time is that benefit claimants are on hold when contacting the Department to discuss their claim.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The table below presents the Departments Management Information for the period February 2022 to January 2023, detailing the average speed to answer (ASA) an inbound call, and the total number of calls answered by month.

Please note - this information is derived from the Department’s management information designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans for the Welsh language telephone service to be fully functioning.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department for Work and Pensions has a made a commitment in our Welsh Language Scheme to treat the Welsh and English languages equally and ensure that all services provided for the public in Wales are available in Welsh, as well as English.

All DWP customers are able to access telephony services in Welsh either directly through a dedicated Welsh language helpline or by selecting the required Interactive Voice Response option. Callers to Carer’s Allowance (CA) and Attendance Allowance (AA) helplines who wish to speak to someone in Welsh currently receive a call-back from a Welsh speaker. A Welsh language option will be implemented on these telephone helplines in October 2022.

All our service line telephone numbers are available on GOV.UK.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new enquiries her Department’s MP hotline teams dealt with in each month in 2021; what steps her Department is taking to manage the (a) performance and (b) case management of those teams; what steps she is taking to oversee the performance of those MP hotlines; and if she will make a statement.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Information relating to the numbers of enquiries received by DWP MP hotlines is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

We offer a range of ways for MPs to contact DWP, including through dedicated MP hotlines within Disability Services, CMG, and Retirement Services. Information about how MPs and their staff can best contact us is published on the Parliamentary website and this information is regularly updated. Individual product lines also conduct regular engagement with MPs, including bespoke sessions with MPs and their support teams.

Enquiries received by MP hotlines are managed as part of DWP’s correspondence teams. We closely monitor the performance of these teams and regularly review the resource allocated to this work and where process improvements can be made.

All MP hotlines are regularly checked during operating hours and calls from MPs are either answered directly or allow a voicemail message to be left, which will be picked up and responded to as soon as possible.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that people whose voices cannot be understood by her Department's automated helpline systems are redirected to a human operator.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

All except two of the Freephone lines that DWP provides operate with a menu of options for customers to select the most appropriate one before the call is then routed to an agent. The two lines which operate differently; Benefit Enquiry Line (BEL) and the Jobcentre Enquiry Line (JEL) use a function called Natural Language Call Steering which will revert to a menu of options if the customer is not understood or chooses not to speak

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

What recent assessment she has made of the contractual performance of Serco plc in delivering call-handling services for her Department.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

DWP regularly reviews performance with Serco to ensure they are meeting contractual responsibilities. During the term of the contract Serco have largely met their Key Performance Indicators, though more recently, competitive labour market conditions and subsequent challenges recruiting agents have led to some short-term performance impacts.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time was for calls to her Department’s telephone lines for (a) attendance allowance, (b) the Child Maintenance Service, (c) personal independence payment, (d) the State Pension and (e) debt management in each month from January 2021 to October 2021.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The average call waiting time (Average Speed of Answer) for calls to DWP Service Lines for (a) attendance allowance, (b) the Child Maintenance Service, (c) personal independence payment, (d) the State Pension and (e) debt management in each month from January 2021 to September 2021 is shown in the table below in the format of hours:minutes:seconds.

The figures provided for Debt Management have been split between the Pay and Recovery lines.

Data Source: BT - Historical Management Information (GI2 – HMI) Serco, G4S

PIP New Claims & PIP New Claims Reassessment lines were combined for reporting purposes from April 21.

The telephony system does not use the term “waiting time” but instead provides data on the average speed that the call is answered.

Average Speed of Answer is the average customer wait time from the point of entering a queue to connection to an agent. This figure excludes any time spent in pre-queue messaging and any wait time for calls ultimately abandoned by callers.

October data has not yet been compiled.

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.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of calls to her Department’s telephone lines for (a) attendance allowance, (b) the Child Maintenance Service, (c) personal independence payment, (d) the State Pension and (e) debt management were answered in each month from January 2021 to October 2021.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Percentage of Calls Answered by DWP telephone lines for (a) attendance allowance, (b) the Child Maintenance Service, (c) personal independence payment, and (d) the State Pension were answered in each month from January 2021 to September 2021 is shown in the table below

The table below also shows the number of calls received (i.e. offered to the network) and answered across all of Debt Management’s “Pay” and “Recovery” lines, over the period January to September 2021.

The proportion of calls answered is shown as a percentage for each month. Debt Management aims to achieve 90% of calls answered. In the table below there are two months where the percentage fell below 90% (March and September) but for both of these months the number of calls received was higher so placing extra demands on the system.

Data Source: BT - Historical Management Information (GI2 – HMI) Serco, G4S

PIP New Claims & PIP New Claims Reassessment lines were combined for reporting purposes from April 21.

October data has not yet been compiled.

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.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average answering time was for all her Department's phone lines for each month since March 2019.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The average call waiting time (Average Speed of Answer) for calls to DWP Service Lines (excluding Debt) in each month from March 2019 to August 2021 is shown in the table below in the format of hours:minutes:seconds.

Data Source: BT - Historical Management Information (GI2 – HMI) Serco, Capita, G4S

Average Speed of Answer is the average customer wait time from the point of entering a queue to connection to an agent.

The data supplied does not include Debt lines but includes outsourced lines and CMS calls from April 2020 onwards.

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.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to reduce phone call waiting times for service users trying to contact her Department's services.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department prioritises resource to our telephony services according to forecast demand. In periods of unexpected high demand (such as experienced through the pandemic) waiting times may vary while the Department rebalances across services, or secures external resource. The Department also continues to progress automation of services for those citizens able to self-serve to reduce demand and therefore wait times.