The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

DWP are supporting those who have lost jobs or have reduced hours in this pandemic, promptly processing new claims and getting money into the accounts of those in urgent need within days.

Now our focus is rightly switching to getting Britain back into work. From July, people will be able to make an appointment with their Work Coach if they can’t get the help they want online or over the phone. Work Coaches, as part of the individualised approach, will be calling all claimants to engage with them.

From 1 July, we will reintroduce the requirement for claimants of UC, NS and Legacy JSA to accept a claimant commitment as part of any new claim. For existing claimants, we will review and update their claimant commitment as capacity allows. This is so we can provide tailored support to help them find work or increase hours.

Claimant commitments must be reasonable for the ‘new normal’, acknowledging the reality of a person’s local jobs market and personal circumstances to prepare them for getting back into work.

Assisting claimants who arrive early for appointments is an established daily occurrence for Jobcentre staff. Our Service Delivery teams provide a professional, supportive and welcoming environment for our customers, providing advice, digital coaching and helping claimants set up and maintain their Universal Credit claims.

Claimants who arrive early for an interview are able to make use of the available facilities within the Jobcentre. This includes access to free Wi-Fi and customer computers. Computers are available at jobcentres to support claimants who need help with making their claim digitally and apply for jobs online. This provides access to digital channels in every Jobcentre for claimants to use if they do not have access at home.

The number of mandatory Income Support and Employment and Support Allowance interviews at Cavendish Court Jobcentre in Sheffield in each of the last three months is shown below.

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution.

The vast majority of Jobcentres delivering Universal Credit full service have private interview facilities as standard. In the small number of offices where they are not available we are able to make arrangements for customers at nearby offices which do have rooms, or arrange for a home visit to be made where it is appropriate to do so.

We always endeavour to deal with vulnerable claimants sensitively, taking into account the particular circumstances and individual needs of the customers.

Work Coaches working with their local managers are best placed to identify the support and guidance that is appropriate to each claimant to help them move in to work as quickly as possible.

The length of the appointment and the number of times that a Work Coach sees a claimant is dependent upon which conditionality group they are placed in. As an example those claimants undertaking Intensive Work Search are required to attend mandatory face to face weekly interventions for the first 13 weeks of their claim

Work Coaches have the flexibility to apply easements for attendance, for example:

• temporary absence to receive medical treatment,
• bereavement of partner or child,
• domestic Violence,
• child in distress,
• drug/alcohol dependent,
• carrying out public duty,
• periods of sickness,
• claimant in prison,
• witness protection

The timing and frequency of attendance at jobseeker’s interviews is at the discretion of the Work Coach, working with their line manager, and also determined by the individual circumstances of the claimant.

In order that interviews are monitored and the claimant journey tracked in the most effective way, managers follow a Quality Assurance framework with their work coaches.

The information requested is in the table.

Notes

1. Legacy Benefits include Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseekers Allowance and Income Support.
2. Source of information for Legacy Benefits: Department for Work and Pensions Labour Market System (LMS).
3. Source of information for UC Live Service: Department for Work and Pensions Work Services Platform (WSP).
4. Activity associated with claimant interventions in UC Live Service areas is captured by Work Coaches to the Work Services Platform (WSP). Management information relating to the duration of interventions is not routinely collected. However, a data download on 09 October for the 12 months from October 2016 to Sep 2017 has produced both volumes and proportions of interviews that were recorded as “completed” within the parameters stated in the question.
5. The calculations for the proportions of Jobseekers interventions to Work Coaches are as follows:

5.1. Legacy Benefits

5.1.1. Interventions lasting 10 minutes or less (1,208,087) divided by total number of interventions (3,612,360) is 33%.

5.1.2. Interventions lasting 20 minutes or less (2,313,915) divided by total number of interventions (3,612,360) is 64%.

5.1.3. Interventions lasting more than 20 minutes (1,298,445) divided by total number of interventions (3,612,360) is 36%.

5.2. Universal Credit

5.2.1. Interventions lasting 10 minutes or less (2,262,870) divided by total number of interventions (5,762,954) is 39%.

5.2.2. Interventions lasting 20 minutes or less (3,578,995) divided by total number of interventions (5,762,954) is 62%.

5.2.3. Interventions lasting more than 20 minutes (2,183,959) divided by total number of interventions (5,762,954) is 38%.

6. The volume and proportion of interventions lasting 20 minutes or less will include those interventions lasting 10 minutes or less that form the response to part (a) of the question.
7. Information on the actual duration of interventions is not currently collated centrally for UC Full Service and to extract this information would incur disproportionate costs.
8. Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution.

Two screened areas are being removed; one in Mexborough Jobcentre as part of building works to merge services from Goldthorpe Jobcentre, and one from the closure of Eastern Avenue. Claimants will be directed to other screened areas within the District if required.

Sheffield Eastern Avenue Jobcentre currently houses one of three screened areas. Its closure will leave two screened areas, located at Bailey Court Jobcentre and Cavendish Court Jobcentre. At present twenty-one claimants from Eastern Avenue are seen in a screened environment, DWP are confident that Cavendish Court Jobcentre will be able to accommodate these claimants.

Travel expenses are not usually reimbursed for attendance at fortnightly interviews. In exceptional circumstances there may be scope for reimbursement; however there would be a disproportionate cost to disaggregate this expenditure based on distance from Jobcentre Plus sites.

One jobcentre was open on Sunday 10 March 2013. Harrogate had 20 claimants booked in for interviews; of these 11 attended. We are unable to say which of these were mothers. No sanctions for failing to attend have been given. All staff working on that day were mothers.

Three jobcentres have opened on a Sunday in the past year. Saltcoats Jobcentre on 24 February 2013 and 3 March 2013. Dunfermline Jobcentre on 20 January 2013 and Harrogate Jobcentre on 10 March 2013.

If a person can show that they had a good reason for missing a Jobcentre appointment, they should not have their JSA sanctioned. Attending a job interview which directly clashed with their jobcentre interview should be classed as being a good reason.

The penalty imposed on a JSA claimant who fails to attend an adviser interview without good reason will be a sanction of four weeks for the first failure and 13 weeks for a second or subsequent failures. For a JSA claimant refusing the offer of a job without good reason, the penalty is a sanction of 13 weeks for the first failure, followed by 26 weeks for a second failure within a year of the first, followed by 156 weeks for a third (or more) such failure(s) within a year of any previous failures.