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Written question asked by Nick Gibb (Conservative) on Tuesday, 5 March 2013, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 7 March 2013. It was answered by Mark Hoban (Conservative) on Monday, 18 March 2013 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Employment and Support Allowance: Worthing

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what proportion of calls to Worthing Benefit Centre regarding employment and support allowance were returned within the target of three hours in (a) July 2012, (b) August 2012, (c) September 2012, (d) October 2012, (e) November 2012, (f) December 2012, (g) January 2013 and (h) February 2013;

[146824]

Answer

The following table gives performance data for employment support allowance at Worthing Benefit Centre for calls returned within three hours and new claims processed within 16 days.

Employment support allowance 2012-13
Percentage of calls returned within 3 hours (target 95%)
 Percentage of claims processed within 16 days (target 85%)
July
 12.0
 68.4
August
 17.6
 62.3
September
 13.7
 71.2
October
 17.5
 53.6
November
 24.4
 59.0
December
 36.8
 63.9
January
 44.3
 72.0
February
 78.0
 82.2

Worthing Benefit Centre is not currently meeting internal performance standards for employment support allowance (ESA) on both calls returned and new claims processed.

Due to the high volumes that have been experienced in this area of work at Worthing Benefit Centre performance has been impacted greatly. Support has been given by other areas of the department and is continuing, backlogs have now reduced and performance is recovering. Full recovery is expected over the next few months.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
146824; 560 cc484-5W
Session
2012-13
Subjects
Jobcentres Jobcentre Plus Telephone services Employment and support allowance Worthing
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk