Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will set up a dedicated telephone line for representatives from nominated charities to call on behalf of benefits claimants.

DWP is committed to delivering a service that can meet a claimant’s or their authorised representative’s needs during the first call. Given the large number of services that the Department delivers, this service is delivered through calling one of a range of published numbers. This ensures that the claimant is routed to the part of the Department that can best answer their questions, and includes dealing with more complex issues as they arise.

As long as the charity has the authority to act on behalf of a claimant they are able to contact the correct part of the Department using the published numbers and receive the same level of service as all customers who contact the Department. We therefore have no plans to introduce a dedicated line for charities/external partners.