Asked by: Danielle Rowley (Labour - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what targets have been put in place for universal credit helpline call handlers to promote the use of the digital channel to claimants.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Department has not set any targets for Universal Credit helpline call handlers to promote the use of the digital channel to claimants. I refer the hon. Member to my answers to Questions 212666 and 212668 on 30 January 2019.
Asked by: Danielle Rowley (Labour - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what procedures she has put in place to incentivise call handlers at universal credit call centres to encourage claimants to use online accounts, and whether those procedures include targets.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Department has not set any targets for the reduction in the number of calls made to the Universal Credit helpline. We have no procedures or targets to incentivise call handlers to encourage claimants to use online accounts.
Asked by: Danielle Rowley (Labour - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has set a target for the reduction in the number of calls made to the universal credit helpline.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Department has not set any targets for the reduction in the number of calls made to the Universal Credit helpline. We have no procedures or targets to incentivise call handlers to encourage claimants to use online accounts.
Asked by: Danielle Rowley (Labour - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of automatic split payment of universal credit payments to prevent domestic abuse.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
We believe that most couples can and want to manage their finances jointly without state intervention. However, we recognise that there are circumstances in which split payments are appropriate. Where this is the case, split payments are available on request. Both members of a couple do not need to be present to arrange a split payment and consent is not required from the other partner to authorise a split payment. Claimants can request a split payment during a face to face meeting, a phone call, or online via their journal and do not have to provide evidence of abuse in order to be granted a split payment.
Not all individuals who are suffering domestic abuse will want a split payment and we work with claimants on an individual basis to provide support that fits with their individual circumstances. Work coaches receive training on domestic abuse and we provide all the support we can when an individual discloses they are suffering from domestic abuse, including signposting them to third party professionals who can provide additional expert advice and support.
We continue to work closely with the Scottish Government to support the development and implementation of their split payment policy, and will observe the implementation of split payments in Scotland further to understand the impacts of such a policy.
Asked by: Danielle Rowley (Labour - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will place in the Library a copy of the Channel Optimisation paper published in November 2017.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Channel Optimisation paper was an internal document and the Department has no plans to place a copy in the Commons Library.
Asked by: Danielle Rowley (Labour - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has issued guidance to universal credit helpline call handlers on promoting the use of the digital channel to claimants.
Answered by Lord Sharma
I refer the hon. Member to my answer to Question 206444 answered on 11 January 2019 and Question 207307 answered on 15 January 2019.
Asked by: Danielle Rowley (Labour - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will place in the Library a copy of the training documents used for training call handlers on the universal credit helpline.
Answered by Lord Sharma
For new entrants, the learning journey for Universal Credit Helpline call handlers is broadly made up of ‘soft skills’ customer service learning, which covers how to gather information through active listening, equality and diversity training and bespoke IT system-based technical learning, all of which is supported by consolidation activity. Colleagues, alongside experienced case managers receive on-going learning in their roles and have access to Universal Credit guidance which is refreshed at regular intervals. The majority of the low level business processes for learning are embedded into the service and do not stand alone as separate guidance or instructions to staff. However, call handlers have access to comprehensive Universal Credit guidance, which is published in the House of Commons Library and which the Department is committed to refreshing at regular intervals.
Asked by: Danielle Rowley (Labour - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training is provides to call-handlers on the universal credit helpline (a) when they start and (b) throughout their working time.
Answered by Lord Sharma
For new entrants, the learning journey for Universal Credit Helpline call handlers is broadly made up of ‘soft skills’ customer service learning, which covers how to gather information through active listening, equality and diversity training and bespoke IT system-based technical learning, all of which is supported by consolidation activity. Colleagues, alongside experienced case managers receive on-going learning in their roles and have access to Universal Credit guidance which is refreshed at regular intervals. The majority of the low level business processes for learning are embedded into the service and do not stand alone as separate guidance or instructions to staff. However, call handlers have access to comprehensive Universal Credit guidance, which is published in the House of Commons Library and which the Department is committed to refreshing at regular intervals.