|
Twenty-one million callers seeking advice on unemployment and disability benefits failed to get through to new government contact centres last year, a report by the National Audit Office reveals today.
Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said the huge number of unanswered calls would be " inconceivable" for a private-sector business.
The worst figures were for the disability and carer service, where 79 per cent of calls - some 18.5 million - from people seeking help with disability living allowance and attendance allowance claims were never answered.
Those who eventually got through had to spend an average of nearly two minutes on hold before speaking to anyone.
The other poor area was the new Jobcentre Plus call centres, where 24 per cent of callers - more than one million - failed to get through.
The report is highly critical of the Department for Work and Pensions for the way the new computer system was introduced and the failure to properly train staff.
The contact centres opened while the government was cutting some 30,000 jobs in benefit offices.
The result was that some centres had to abandon taking calls because of staff shortages and reverted back to the manual system, which delayed benefit payments.
Auditors are also critical that the department has 55 phone numbers, including 30 helplines, for the public to call about different benefits.
Different agency contact centres do not work with each other and customers often had to ring more than one number to resolve claims.
Since the report's findings, the ministry has improved the service. More calls are being answered, but some people are still waiting a fortnight before they can get an appointment.
Mr Leigh said: "The DWP hosts a myriad of phone numbers and agency names, struggles to transfer customer calls or information to where they are needed, has an IT network which is complex and unreliable, and, on one occasion, even introduced a system without having enough trained staff to use it.
"You can't conceive a private sector operator working in this way. It's incredible that some computers in different parts of the DWP can't talk to each other. The department has to do a better job ."
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents staff working at the centres, said: "This report lays bare that severe problems remain in key areas of the DWP - problems which are compounded by the fact that the department has already slashed 15,000 jobs in the race to meet its 30,000 target.
"Twenty-one million calls going unanswered, often from some of the most disadvantaged in society, is completely unacceptable, as is people having to wait two weeks for a call back to get a job-seeking appointment."
Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: "It's simply unacceptable for people, particularly the most vulnerable in society, to face long delays when applying for benefits for themselves and their families.
"The Government must remember that while call centres can provide a useful service to many benefit claimants, they're not appropriate for everybody. Claimants need a choice of routes into what can be a very complicated benefits system - that must include face-to-face advice, as well as online and on the phone."
The DWP was backed by Kitty Ussher, Labour MP for Burnley and a member of the committee.
She said: "Contact centres have succeeded in increasing access to benefits, not least by encouraging the take up of pension credit to reach 2.7 million households.
"Furthermore, applications are being processed more quickly whilst overall costs have been reduced. This has all been achieved while maintaining very high levels of customer satisfaction."
A DWP spokeswoman said: "Our latest figures show that since April we have received over 29 million calls, of which 11.6% were not answered.
"Our customer satisfaction levels are high and surveys of Jobcentre Plus, the pension service and the disability and carers service show that around 80% of our customers are satisfied with the service."
|
