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Jobcentre Plus

Answer

The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. She will write to the hon. Member.Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 12 December 2005:"The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question concerning which Jobcentre Plus contact centres are operating some clerical processes; and if he will make a statement on the (a) reasons for and (b) extent of clerical processing in each case. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.""Jobcentre Plus is undertaking a massive change programme. By making substantial investment in improved IT, including the introduction of the Customer Management System (CMS), we are modernising and improving our service to customers which enables us to provide easier access to our services for all our customers, irrespective of their geographical location.""Change on this scale does create challenges in maintaining levels of service. We know that some customers experienced difficulties in getting through to some of our contact centres in August and September. Robust plans were developed and implemented to improve performance. These include the introduction of clerical processes in some contact centres and the combining of the inbound and outbound call where appropriate. We have also strengthened recruitment plans supported by robust training programmes. These plans have been successful and we have seen week on week improvements in customer service since the beginning of September.""On 30 November 2005 nine contact centres were using some clerical processes to process claims. The numbers shown below are the percentage of claims being processed in contact centres using these clerical processes."

	Percentage
Coventry	70
Derby	14
Hastings	53
Lincoln	32
Lowestoft	20
Pembroke Dock	14
Poole	12
Sheffield	48
Torquay	20

"I hope this is helpful."

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

440 c1771-2W;440 c1771-2W; 34384

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Applications Jobcentres ICT Jobcentre Plus Social security benefits

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk