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 the universal credit helpline is properly resourced to cater for the volume of calls it is receiving.

The Department for Work and Pensions operates a virtual telephony platform which enables it to manage fluctuating call demands by increasing or decreasing the number of agents it uses to handle calls.

Every week the Department matches the required capacity and resources to its telephony forecast to ensure it meets demand and delivers a good service across all channels. This capacity is set up to scale up in line with new claims as the service expands further this year.