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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 15 December 2005:"The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question concerning how many abortive telephone calls were made to Jobcentre Plus by claimants in each month since December 2004, broken down by local call centre. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.""When a customer calls they are placed into a queue either until the call is answered or they choose to abandon the call. I have assumed that abandoned calls is what is meant by ““abortive”” telephone calls. I have, therefore, placed in the House of Commons Library information on the numbers of abandoned contact centre calls made by customers.""I hope this is helpful."

Number of abandoned calls to each Jobcentre Plus contact centre December 2004 To November 2005
	December	January	February	March	April	May
	Number of weeks in month
First contact inbound telephony	Five	Four	Four	Five	Four	Four
Chelmsford	1,122	1,148	1,434	2,064	1,144	1,019
Colchester	1,162	1,175	1,283	2,418	895	1,296
Derby	1,512	1,190	5,136	9,065	21,250	12,009
Grimsby	1,596	5,896	815	3,837	1,936	676
Halifax	2,529	6,917	2,930	6,805	3,475	2,092
Lincoln	1,471	2,910	2,263	1,787	2,208	2,823
Lowestoft	3,572	5,628	4,452	12,423	13,133	10,217
Sheffield	—	233	815	819	3,337	8,376
Blackburn	672	483	318	962	601	597
Bootle	1,504	1,259	891	1,188	8,158	5,081
Chorlton	1,959	2,555	1,681	2,927	3,161	—
Coventry	671	465	881	7,073	6,054	9,952
Garston	4,576	2,557	695	4,525	3,144	2,754
Telford	142	2,092	1,710	3,110	1,201	1,001
Marton Mere	979	3,109	1,102	1,606	883	919
Aberdeen	876	—	—	—	—	—
Aldershot	510	212	207	297	777	374
Banbury	134	620	2,483	2,056	1,747	1,129
Dundee	3,602	5,517	5,395	7,239	5,139	4,399
Gateshead	771	648	227	234	312	818
Hastings	5,801	13,775	3,291	7,278	3,099	12,291
Middlesbrough	3,836	841	465	1,384	2,367	2,225
Milton Keynes	109	621	1,951	1,813	1,728	972
Newcastle	594	548	644	1,285	4,329	9,104
Newport	715	301	117	—	—	—
Paisley	1,679	2,213	2,924	9,505	3,343	1,176
Portsmouth	812	358	427	469	827	559
Provan	2,256	2,390	1,052	3,898	616	1,105
Bridgend	3,594	858	251	226	340	244
Cwmbran	635	513	450	432	327	227
Harrow	298	431	384	695	356	196
Ilford	2,565	2,228	2,029	2,145	1,778	327
Kennington Park	1,994	1,537	1,449	4,139	2,846	423
Pembroke Dock	7,857	9,533	2,446	3,713	4,655	3,391
Poole	320	880	799	2,419	2,205	523
Taunton	209	269	251	457	353	326
Torquay	403	228	426	1,271	2,699	2,436
Directorate total	63,037	82,138	54,074	111,564	110,243	101,057

	June	July	August	September	October	November
	Number of weeks in month
First contact inbound telephony	Five	Four	Four	Five	Four	Four
Chelmsford	2,912	2,878	1,819	2,452	864	416
Colchester	3,500	3,385	—	—	—	—
Derby	7,621	18,317	27,967	26,712	6,063	2,898
Grimsby	1,944	4,057	6,066	5,188	8,283	1,554
Halifax	7,707	9,057	5,550	6,198	3,327	1,103
Lincoln	3,749	4,521	8,619	13,647	4,362	479
Lowestoft	23,925	15,432	14,110	22,246	978	1,844
Sheffield	14,463	15,297	14,323	6,078	146	78
Blackburn	656	631	5,066	8,884	4,047	1,994
Bootle	6,168	10,321	7,561	4,925	1,091	500
Chorlton	—	—	—	—	—	—
Coventry	16,132	16,823	17,813	22,036	11,292	1,482
Garston	7,023	20,420	13,512	16,971	5,585	1,459
Telford	1,398	5,434	9,589	7,005	4,767	548
Marton Mere	1,995	5,618	4,342	3,256	1,449	1,190
Aberdeen	—	—	—	—	—	—
Aldershot	333	20	—	—	—	—
Banbury	2,126	5,010	5,160	2,305	1,635	551
Dundee	7,528	5,585	14,365	22,314	11,922	4,756
Gateshead	1,068	1,111	540	—	—	—
Hastings	19,662	16,413	20,872	30,925	4,054	786
Middlesbrough	2,743	4,389	6,205	4,624	1,558	898
Milton Keynes	2,224	4,033	3,314	—	—	—
Newcastle	8,280	3,963	3,926	14,163	5,501	2,674
Newport	—	—	—	—	—	—
Paisley	3,374	2,532	2,893	5,029	3,793	896
Portsmouth	759	1,462	1,293	479	—	—
Provan	3,597	4,332	4,902	6,110	1,399	—
Bridgend	1,046	10,896	6,158	11,440	2,830	1,728
Cwmbran	725	215	403	1,286	400	511
Harrow	189	—	—	—	—	—
Ilford	40	—	—	—	—	—
Kennington Park	3,218	5,058	3,496	3,866	—	—
Pembroke Dock	5,748	8,346	12,169	22,311	4,153	2,286
Poole	1,163	3,945	11,010	11,310	1,310	1,388
Taunton	2,507	5,789	5,943	1,968	5,816	1,740
Torquay	3,177	6,396	12,936	13,136	1,916	1,447
Directorate total	168,700	221,686	251,922	296,864	98,541	35,206
(28) Data is for the three weeks of four that have passed so far.
(29) No longer take first contact benefit calls.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

35066; 440 c2286-8W

Session

2005-06

Related items

Deposited Paper DEP 05/1754
Thursday, 15 December 2005
Deposited papers
House of Commons

Subjects

Jobcentre Plus Telephones

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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