Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) shortest, (b) average and (c) longest time taken by his Department to respond to Members' casework inquiries on behalf of constituents was in respect of (i) universal credit, (ii) jobseeker's allowance and (iii) employment support allowance in the last 12 months for which figures are available.
The Department does not measure the timings as requested in the question and to provide this information would incur disproportionate cost.
However, the Department has a 15 working day target for MP to Director General Correspondence and a 20 working day target for Ministerial correspondence. These timescales are in line with Cabinet Office directives. Our latest internal data for year to date performance currently runs at 93% and 99% respectively, for correspondence answered within these timescales.