Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the (a) number of telephone calls it receives from universal credit claimants and (b) level of assistance with telephone enquiries needed by claimants in (i) areas where the universal credit full digital service is being rolled out and (ii) other areas.

The number of telephone calls from customers in Universal Credit Full Service areas varies from day to day, and will continue to increase as we roll out further. Internal management information captured at the point of call indicates that just over 1% of callers require assistance in getting and staying online.

Notes: Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics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.