Department for Work and Pensions: Correspondence

(asked on 15th October 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to improve her Department's response times to correspondence from members of the public.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 25th October 2021

The Department is currently experiencing high volumes of customer complaints, and it is taking us longer than usual to reply as we start to recover from the challenges of the pandemic.

DWP now triage complaints giving priority to vulnerable claimants who may be at risk, and those with benefit payment issues. We aim to contact customers within 15 working days to clear the complaint or agree how to investigate it if it will take longer.

We continue to look into all complaints as quickly as we can and, as part of the triage process, we write or call those customers where there may be a delay in answering their complaint.

We are in the process of designing the future operating model for DWP complaints and correspondence. As part of this we will be looking for further opportunities to drive efficiency in the process whilst ensuring that vulnerable customers are prioritised.

Reticulating Splines