Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2020 to Question 10295, on Maternity Allowance, on what date the service level agreement came into force; which parties are bound by that agreement; and whether she plans to revert to clearing claims for maternity allowance within 24 working days.

There is no formal Service Level Agreement in place; that term was used to describe the process by which the department considers a variety of factors to identify the most appropriate balance of resources to deliver a good level of customer service. Currently we work to a planning assumption of a maximum waiting time of 24 days, but our actual processing time is currently eight days.