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Written question asked by Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru) on Tuesday, 29 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 2 December 2005. It was answered by Baroness Hodge of Barking (Labour) on Monday, 12 December 2005 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Jobcentre Plus

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average time taken is for (a) callback and (b) interview under the Customer Management System for customers who contact Jobcentre Plus through the medium of (i) Welsh and (ii) English; and what the average time taken was in each of the last three months.
Answer

[holding answer 2 December 2005]: 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 the average delay for callback and interview under the Customer Management System for customers who contact Jobcentre Plus through the medium of Welsh and English; and what the average delays were in each of the last three months. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.""Our aim is to call customers back within 24 hours of the inbound call. The current average waiting time for a call back in November across all contact centres is 1.9 days. In the week ending 25 November the average waiting time for a call back is 1.6 days. This is a significant improvement on the average of 4.9 days in September and 3.3 days in October.""We do not collect information on average call back times specifically for customers speaking the Welsh language. These call backs are made by our Bridgend contact centre, along with those to English language speakers. Currently the average call back time in Bridgend is one day, in September this figure was 3.8 days and in October it was 4.5 days.""We have an internal standard to complete work-focused interviews within 4 days of initial contact with the customer. Twelve of our centres captured data from 273 Local Service Outlets over a sample period from 16th September 2005 to 25th November 2005 on the waiting times for these interviews. This information is in the table."

Week ending Average waiting time in days
2005
16 September 7.2
23 September 7.7
30 September 8.0
07 October 7.8
14 October 8.5
21 October 8.0
28 October 7.6

"I hope this is helpful."

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
34172; 440 c1769-70W;440 c1769-70W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Applications Administrative delays Jobcentres Interviews Jobcentre Plus Social security benefits Welsh language Telephones
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk