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Dept for Work and Pensions

Answer

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the impact of transferring all benefits and credits to bank automated credit systems on (a) the time taken for payments to be made to clients, (b) numbers of staff required within his Department and (c) the cost of payments to (i) the post office, (ii) banks and (iii) other organisations for administering BACS. [199158] Mr. Pond: At the outset of the Payment Modernisation Programme, 43 per cent. of DWP customers were already being paid by Direct Payment into an account. The current proportion of DWP customers being paid some or all of their benefits by Direct Payment into an account is 77 per cent. This is a positive step towards meeting the Public Service Agreement target of 85 per cent. of customers being paid directly into an account by 2005. The increase in the number of customers who are now paid by Direct Payment has not affected the frequency of payments made to customers, and customers continue to receive their payment by the due date. If the customer has chosen Direct Payment into an account, the overall timescale to process payments through the BACS system is three working days. During the course of the conversion process the Department has deployed a Customer Conversion Centre to ease the burden on its front line operations. It is normal business practice for the Department to manage this sort of large-scale but temporary operation in this way. The cost of payments to organisations including banks and the post office for administering BACS, is commercial in confidence. Throughout the planning and migration process detailed consultation has been undertaken with BACS Ltd. (now named Voca Ltd.).

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

199158; 426 c1858W;426 c1862-3W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Administration Costs Bank services Department for Work and Pensions Payments Staff Post offices Social security benefits Welfare tax credits Standards

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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