Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average call waiting times were for the employment support allowance (a) enquiry and (b) service telephone lines in each of the last twelve quarters.
a) The average call waiting time (Average Speed of Answer) for calls to the Employment Support Allowance helpline in each quarter from April 2018 to March 2021 is shown in the table below in the format of hours:minutes:seconds.
b) It has not been possible to present data to answer the question posed as there are upward of 100 service lines operated by DWP. If the Member of Parliament was to indicate which service line(s) the ASA was required for, this information could be provided.
Year | Quarter |
| Average Speed of Answer |
2018 -2019 | 1 | April - June | 00:20:01 |
| 2 | July - September | 00:19:23 |
| 3 | October - December | 00:14:31 |
| 4 | January - March | 00:19:50 |
|
|
|
|
2019 - 2020 | 1 | April - June | 00:23:36 |
| 2 | July - September | 00:25:59 |
| 3 | October - December | 00:25:11 |
| 4 | January - March | 00:19:04 |
|
|
|
|
2020 - 2121 | 1 | April - June | 00:22:25 |
| 2 | July - September | 00:30:46 |
| 3 | October - December | 00:20:12 |
| 4 | January - March | 00:20:24 |
Data Source: BT - Historical Management Information (GI2 – HMI)
The data supplied is derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics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.