DWP confirms plan to deploy 450 more staff to its Debt Management service telephone line to ensure target of answering 90 per cent of calls is met

However, Permanent Secretary reports that PIP, attendance allowance and state pension telephony services are also currently providing a service level 'below the expected standards'

The DWP has confirmed that it is planning to deploy 450 more staff to its Debt Management service telephone line to ensure its performance target of answering 90 per cent of calls is met.

In a recent letter to the DWP's Permanent Secretary Peter Schofield, the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee Stephen Timms highlights a written answer in December 2020 that revealed that Debt Management agents had answered just 78 per cent of calls in November 2020, well short of the Department’s target. In addition, Mr Timms points out that more than 50,000 calls per day were 'blocked' and did not ‘make it into the system’ at the height of problems following the re-commencement of debt recovery activity from July 2020 after a three-month suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Asked by Mr Timms for details of how many calls to Debt Management were blocked or went unanswered between August and December 2020, the Permanent Secretary has responded to say that -

‘This is not data we normally publish, but I can assure the committee the number of calls blocked this month has dramatically reduced thanks to the actions we have taken.’

In addition, responding to Mr Timms’ further request for details of what the Department is doing to improve the performance of the Debt Management service line, Mr Schofield says -

‘The temporary spike in the number of calls received was due to the recommencing of debt recovery following a pause due to the outbreak of coronavirus. We have since reviewed our plan to recommence business as usual activity and in the coming months expect to deploy approximately 450 new staff to the network.’

NB - Mr Schofield highlights that there have also been issues with the performance of a number of other service lines-

‘… there are four lines (Attendance Allowance, Child Maintenance Service, Personal Independence Payment and State Pension) which are currently providing a service level below the expected standards, with steps being taken to improve the service for these lines.’

Mr Schofield’s response and Mr Timms’ letter are available from parliament.uk