Telephone wait times

just outsource it ti another country far away and it will be much better

They could “help people into employment” and increase the number of call-centre staff, or would that be too easy?

or just get the decisoins right first time and process claims quiclky , no need for so may calls then, but that would be too easy

Average range for answering non-UC 0345 number is reported as between two and a half and four and a half minutes in management information reproduced in a Commons written answer yesterday. UC helpline average answer times are also there.

Details of average call length and costs of an average call are also reported.

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

They must be filtering my calls then; I’ve just passed the 25 minute mark on to ESA.

Can anyone beat one hour, one minute!??!

Notes: Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics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. Performance variation should be viewed in the context of a wide range of operational impacts occurring; this includes caller demand, system stability, changes to process and adviser capacity.

as the man said lies, damned lies and unpublished management information

Where I work, we are keeping a log of the waiting times trying to get through to the call centre, as it is causing significant disruption to the delivery of our busy advice drop in service.
We’re using a simple template with date, time waiting, if we gave up and hung up, if the DWP hung up before connecting us to a real person, and whether we were cut off having been put through to a real person.
This should provide us with real evidence to demolish Freud’s ludicrous claims of the 2 minute waiting time.

32 minutes there.

i have a client i have arranged to drop by at their house to see a letter as that will be quicker than making a phone call. ridiculous stuff.

I did a FOI on this at the time and the answer has come back - request refused as will cost more than £600 to provide the info. Has anyone any suggestions on whether they think it best to challenge this or put in an amended request as suggested? Suggestions for wording of amended request appreciated.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/telephone_call_times#incoming-1017592