Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that there are sufficient telephone lines and call handlers available to ensure that those people wanting to top up gaps in the National Insurance contributions between tax years April 2006 and April 2016 are able to do so before the deadline of the 31 July 2023.

DWP have been proactively monitoring the increase in call demand since the 22^nd of February, regularly adapting its telephony interactive voice response (IVR) approach and also updated Social Media messaging to assist our customers’ experience.

DWP are working together with HMRC on an ongoing basis and are flexing personnel resources where possible being mindful of other DWP service lines.