Social Security Benefits: Telephone Services
(asked on 6th October 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (a) what the average waiting time is for callers wanting to speak to an advisor calling the 0345 benefit advice line, (b) what the average time is that a caller spends speaking with an advisor and (c) what the average cost is for the caller of such a call.
There is no single specific 0345 benefit advice line. There are a number of 0345 lines that deal with benefit related enquiries or help. The average speed of answer and call duration for each of these lines is set out in the table below:
July - September 2017 | Average Speed of Answer | Average Call Duration |
DLA Helpline | 00:02:28 | 00:04:09 |
DWP On-line Helpdesk | 00:00:41 | 00:03:23 |
ESA Enquiries | 00:12:06 | 00:07:21 |
JSA Enquiries | 00:05:19 | 00:07:17 |
IS Enquiries | 00:09:15 | 00:05:43 |
Jobcentre Enquiry Line | 00:03:08 | 00:04:42 |
PIP Enquiries | 00:02:56 | 00:05:17 |
Calls to 0345 numbers cost no more than a standard geographic call, and count towards any free or inclusive minutes in a landline or mobile phone contract. When charges apply the costs are shown on the following web page for the Gov.uk site (www.gov.uk/call-charges) We are aware of possible concerns about call charges to our enquiry lines so we will offer to call a customer back if concerns are raised over the cost of the call.
Notes:
The data in the table covers the period July 2017 – September 2017.
We have provided Average Speed of Answer and Average Call Duration for the 0345 lines that deal with benefit related enquiries or help.
The Average Speed of Answer (ASA) measures the average customer wait time from the point of entering a queue to connection to an agent. This excludes any time spent in pre-queue messaging and any wait time for calls ultimately abandoned by callers.
The Average Call Duration (ACD) is made up of inbound talk time, inbound hold time and inbound conference time divided by the number of calls answered.
We have not included the 0345 Benefit Enquiry Line (English and Welsh) as there is no ASA or ACD information collated for this service line.
Source:
BT - Operational Management Information System
BT - Historical Management Information
Please note that the data in the table is derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics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.