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Dept for Work and Pensions

Answer

Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what targets have been set for his Department for the number and percentage of benefit claimants who will transfer to direct payment of benefits; and if he will make a statement; [193139] (2) if he will place in the Library copies of (a) administrative and (b) operational (i) instructions and (ii) targets issued to his Department's staff regarding the transfer of benefit claims to direct payments. [193140] Mr. Pond: [holding answer 21 October 2004]: With regard to the conversion of customers to Direct Payment the Department has a published Public Service Agreement target that by 2005, 85 per cent. of customers will have their benefits paid by Direct Payment. The conversion process itself from order books and girocheques to payments directly into an account, started in April 2003 and involves contacting approximately 14 million customers. To achieve the target customers are being provided with all the information they need on all of their "account options", including which accounts can be used at Post Office branches. It will be up to the customers themselves to decide which type of account they wish to have their money paid into. Independent research commissioned by DWP shows that 82 per cent. of customers found the process of opening an account to be easy and 93 per cent. were happy once they had transferred to Direct Payment. Key figures on the progress of conversion to Direct Payment are available in the Library and these are updated every four weeks. In addition a Direct Payment Customer Call Centre script and operational guidance is already available in Library.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

426 c1648-9W;426 c1651W; 193139;193140

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Administration Social security benefits Standards Payment methods

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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