Social Security Benefits: Telephone Services
(asked on 19th November 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) shortest, (b) longest and (c) average waiting times for calls to each of her Department's benefit telephone lines were in each of the last 18 months for which data are available.
The table below provides the average waiting times for the benefit telephone lines for comparison with PQ141701.
The information is for the most recent 18 month period in which data is available for, May 2017 to October 2018.
We are aware of a potential issue, which is being investigated, whereby a call could be terminated by a customer but potentially remain in the system and continue to be recorded as a ‘live call’. This issue produces statistical anomalies which impact on the reliability of the data available.
Average Speed of Answer
| Last 18 Months | October 2018 |
National DLA Adult | 00:03:26 | 00:04:51 |
Employment and Support Allowance Enquiry | 00:15:19 | 00:11:30 |
Jobseekers Allowance Enquiry English | 00:08:51 | 00:03:43 |
Income Support Enquiry | 00:08:38 | 00:11:07 |
Jobcentre Enquiry Line | 00:06:05 | 00:04:48 |
Personal Independence Payment | 00:05:31 | 00:06:46 |
Universal Credit Live Service | 00:09:17 | 00:16:26 |
Universal Credit Full Service | 00:05:01 | 00:03:58 |
The information requested regarding the shortest and longest wait time could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Please Note:
Data Source: BT - OPMIS and Historical Management Information (GI2 – HMI)
The data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution.