Department for Work and Pensions: Telephone Services
(asked on 21st January 2021) - View Source
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, how her Department defines the acceptable service level for its telephone lines for (a) attendance allowance, (b) the Child Maintenance Service, (c) personal independence payment and (d) state pension; and in each month from August 2020 to December 2020 what service level was provided on each of those lines.
An acceptable level of service for all of the department’s telephony lines is defined as 80% of calls answered (a common industry standard). This service level indicates that customers are being quickly connected to team members and getting their problems resolved in a timely manner.
A reduced service may be necessary for a period where the balancing of resource (as experienced during this Pandemic) are of high priority within a particular business area.
Table below shows performance for Attendance Allowance (AA), Child Maintenance Service (CMS), Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and State Pension (SP) telephony lines for the period August 2020 to December 2020.
% Calls Answered (PCA) | Aug-20 | Sep-20 | Oct-20 | Nov-20 | Dec-20 |
AA | 61.10% | 60.20% | 64.40% | 62.00% | 64.00% |
CMS | 78.90% | 75.60% | 74.80% | 74.30% | 68.40% |
PIP | 70.60% | 70.60% | 63.30% | 69.60% | 69.20% |
SP | 60.60% | 57.90% | 52.10% | 55.20% | 60.30% |