Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the letter of 15 January 2021 from the Permanent Secretary to the Work and Pensions Committee, in each month from August 2020 to December 2020 how many call attempts to her Department’s debt management service (a) were made, (b) were blocked and (c) were not blocked but were not answered.
The table below illustrates the extent of the telephony traffic in Debt Management since August 2020.
| Call attempts | Calls answered | Calls blocked | Calls not answered |
August | 153,800 | 102,400 | 22,200 | 29,300 |
September | 282,100 | 127,900 | 101,600 | 52,600 |
October | 221,800 | 147,500 | 41,800 | 32,500 |
November | 605,300 | 149,600 | 413,700 | 42,000 |
December | 278,900 | 122,600 | 129,400 | 26,900 |
January (to 11/01/21) | 46,500 | 42,700 | 100 | 3,700 |
*Figures are rounded to the nearest 100
In November 2020, there was a temporary spike in the number of calls received due to the recommencement of debt recovery, following a pause due to the outbreak of Covid-19. It should be noted that the number of blocked calls does not represent individual customers and that the volume will be substantially distorted by repeat attempts.
We have since updated our telephone messaging and guidance for call handlers as well as redeploying trained staff from clearing work to answering calls.
In addition, DWP expects to deploy approximately 450 new staff to the network in the next three months.