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Benefits Uprating

Obviously I do not know the details of the case, or cases, raised by the hon. Gentleman, but I can say that people who have been redundant and want to claim benefits are finding increasingly that the telephone is the first point of contact enabling them to establish their claims and get the process running, so I would not be so dismissive of telephone numbers. I made it very clear the other week—on the Jeremy Vine show, no less—that if people did wish to complain about the service that they had received, I genuinely wished to know about it. I do not want to go around saying that this is a world-class service, although I believe that to be the case. It is certainly a far better service than that provided in the early 1980s, when I was unemployed; in those days people had to run around four or five different buildings before they knew for certain whether they could make a claim. What I want to do is provide a service at local level, because that is what is required. As the hon. Gentleman will know, we are increasingly using Train to Gain funds and other interventions to work with companies to try to prevent redundancies from occurring in the first place, and, when that cannot be done, to ensure that people know exactly what support they will be offered long before they are faced with the cliff edge of redundancy. For that purpose we need, and are receiving—for which we are grateful—support and intelligence from, for instance, companies, the insolvency administrator—whatever that is—and trade unions on a region-by-region basis. The earlier the intervention, the earlier we can tailor the appropriate response from Jobcentre Plus.