House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 24 July 2006 (pt 1885)

Command Papers

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the unnumbered Command Papers produced by his Department in each session since 1976; how (a) hon. Members and (b) members of the public can (i) inspect and (ii) obtain copies; and if he will make a statement. [81658]

Mrs. McGuire: Documents which are laid before Parliament as unnumbered Command Papers are generally restricted to Explanatory Notes to Treaties, Explanatory Memorandum to Statutory Instruments and some Treasury Minutes. All other documents are published in the numbered Command Papers series.

A complete list of unnumbered Command Papers can only be produced at disproportionate cost.

Copies of all unnumbered Command Papers are made available via the Vote Office.

Correspondence

Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he will reply to the letter of5 May from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire on overpayment of benefits. [78039]

Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer on 16 June 2006]: I replied to the hon. Member on 8 June 2006.

Crisis Loans

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many telephone lines are available in Crewe and Nantwich that are dedicated lines to the North West call centre for crisis loans; how many missed calls were recorded per day on average in the last period for which figures are available; how many complaints have been received about those lines in the last 12 months; and how crisis loans can be accessed if his Department's local office is closed; [83787]

(2) where the officials answering calls to the telephone lines dedicated to applicants for crisis loans in the North West are located. [84396]

Mr. Jim Murphy: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to provide my hon. Friend with the information requested.

Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 24 July 2006:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions asking how many telephone lines are available in Crewe and Nantwich that are dedicated lines to the North West call centre for crisis loans; how many missed calls were recorded per day on average in the last period for which figures are available; how many complaints have been received about those lines in the last 12 months; how crisis loans can be accessed if the Department's local office is closed and where the officials answering calls tothe telephone lines dedicated to applicants for crisis loans in the North West are located. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.

The Social Fund Unit in Hartford House, Northwich is one of 13 such units in the Jobcentre Plus North West Region, which process applications for Crisis Loans. This unit covers more than one individual site. Customers can apply for a Crisis Loan by telephone (Crisis Loan Direct) or opt for a face-to-face interview.

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The Northwich unit administers the Social Fund for the area covered by the Cheshire and Warrington Jobcentre Plus District. Customers within this District are able to access the Crisis Loan team in Northwich by telephone, or by the freephone facility at their local Jobcentre. Nantwich Jobcentre has one telephone programmed for Social Fund customers and Crewe Jobcentre has four. Applications for Crisis Loans for the rest of the North West are processed in the following sites: Mitre House, Lancaster; Marton Mere, Blackpool; Barry House, Preston; Rusholme, Manchester; Graeme House, Chorlton; Park Road, Toxteth; Hordan House, Birkenhead; Edendale House, Huyton; Webster House, Kirkby; Eastbank House, Southport; Gregson House, St Helens; Kingsway House, Widnes; Newgate House, Rochdale; Elizabeth House, Bolton; Beech House, Hyde; and Brun House, Burnley. Overall, there are 110 dedicated telephone lines for Crisis Loans throughout the North West Region.

I regret that I am unable to provide you with reliable data on the numbers of missed calls, as the current telephony system does not record this.

The Northwich team receive an average of sixty-five Crisis Loan applications each day. In the last twelve months a total of fifty-five complaints have been received concerning the difficulties experienced by customers in accessing this service. A number of those complaints followed a period between October and November 2005 during which the telephony system experienced extensive service interruptions and suspensions. Jobcentre Plus is currently investing in an enhanced telephony and IT system, to improve customer service as part of our programme to transform Social Fund delivery.

From April 2008 all Social Fund functions, including Crisis Loan Direct, for customers in our Cheshire and Warrington District will be delivered from a specialist unit in Belle Vale, Liverpool. Until then, Northwich will continue to administer Crisis Loan Direct.

Those customers who need a Crisis Loan when our offices are closed (i.e. outside normal working hours) can access the “Out of Hours Service” (OOHS), by contacting their Local Authority, Social Services or the police. The Pension Service can also make a referral to the OOHS on a weekday night up to 20.00. These contacts have details of the OOHS dedicated telephone numbers.

I am extremely concerned that your constituents have continued to experience difficulties in accessing the Crisis Loan service in Northwich, and can assure you that both my Regional and Local Social Fund Managers are taking action to address these capacity issues. I am confident that, as staff gain greater experience, with the introduction of a number of streamlined processes, and with improvements to the telephone service, we should be able to resolve these problems.

Both Bill Marks, NW Region Benefit Delivery Manager and Angela Keith, NW Region Social Fund Manager, will be more than happy to discuss any further concerns you may have, and I have also asked that they arrange an early meeting with the appropriate Citizens Advice Bureaux.

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was spent on crisis loans for people in each London borough in each of the last five years. [87117]

Mr. Plaskitt: The information requested is not available.

Departmental Complaints

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints his Department received from (a) hon. Members, (b) advice agencies and (c) the public in each of the last 24 months. [41822]

Mrs. McGuire: The following annexes provide details of complaints received in DWP in 2004 and 2005.

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I am unable to provide exactly the same information across all our businesses because, historically, the different agencies of the Department have counted complaints in different ways. This is an issue that we are now addressing, as part of work to bring a consistent approach to complaints handling across the Department.

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Complaints from advice agencies are not recorded separately from those for members of the public. However, the Appeals Service started recording them separately in April 2005, and, from that date, complaints from advice agencies are included in the overall figure, and shown in brackets alongside.

Complaints from members of the public and advice agencies
	Jobcentre Plus	The Pension Service	Disability and Carers Service^{( 1)}	Child Support Agency^{( 2)}	Appeals Service^{( 3)}	Compensation Recovery Unit
2004
January	^(4, 5)4736	⁽⁶⁾—	⁽⁷⁾1130	3248	54	5
February	⁽⁵⁾—	⁽⁶⁾—	⁽⁷⁾—	3340	58	11
March	⁽⁵⁾—	⁽⁶⁾—	⁽⁷⁾—	3901	59	10
April	1317	2347	⁽⁸⁾1685	3363	45	10
May	1430	2931	⁽⁸⁾—	3759	59	12
June	2728	3627	⁽⁸⁾—	4091	67	26
July	2890	3346	⁽⁹⁾1596	3985	52	4
August	3460	2462	⁽⁹⁾—	3845	56	17
September	3477	1954	⁽⁹⁾—	4108	44	5
October	3112	1540	⁽¹⁰⁾1358	3742	53	4
November	3332	1535	⁽¹⁰⁾—	4081	54	6
December	2604	1109	⁽¹⁰⁾—	3009	36	10

2005
January	3234	1517	⁽¹¹⁾1293	3395	56	0
February	3164	1532	⁽¹¹⁾—	3877	63	0
March	3682	1520	⁽¹¹⁾—	3988	77	6
April	2273	1741	⁽¹²⁾902	4287	54 (14)	3
May	2506	1307	⁽¹²⁾—	3370	47(5)	0
June	2488	1218	⁽¹²⁾—	3705	45(12)	0
July	2840	1623	⁽¹³⁾917	3340	61 (13)	8
August	3062	1945	⁽¹³⁾—	3589	67(10)	3
September	2887	1942	⁽¹³⁾—	3727	63(18)	3
October	2928	1979	⁽¹⁴⁾997	3671	49(13)	2
November	3104	2257	⁽¹⁴⁾—	4110	56(15)	5
December	428	1464	⁽¹⁴⁾—	3156	40(7)	1

2006
January	516	1899	⁽¹⁵⁾1112	3965	66(13)	5
February	755	1980	⁽¹⁵⁾—	3932	43(9)	5
March	537	2110	⁽¹⁵⁾—	4324	72(13)	7
April	483	1331	n/a	3078	⁽¹⁶⁾—	4
May	541	1346	n/a	3484	⁽¹⁶⁾—	2
⁽¹⁾Figures recorded only on a quarterly basis ⁽²⁾ Figures are for First Stage of the complaints process, Treat Official and Chief Executive complaints, some of which may come from MPs ⁽³⁾ Until April 2005, the Appeals Service included all complaints in one count ^{(4 )}Figures recorded on a quarterly basis until April 2004 ^(5 )Total ⁽⁶⁾ Figures could not be retrieved within the required timescale ⁽⁷⁾ Total ⁽⁸⁾ Total ⁽⁹⁾ Total ⁽¹⁰⁾ Total ⁽¹¹⁾ Total ⁽¹²⁾ Total ⁽¹³⁾ Total ⁽¹⁴⁾ Total ⁽¹⁵⁾ Total ⁽¹⁶⁾The Appeals Service moved to the Department for Constitutional Affairs in April 2006. n/a=Not yet available.

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Complaints from Members of Parliament
	Jobcentre Plus	The Pension Service	Disability and Carers Service	Child Support Agency^{( 1)}	Appeals Service^{( 2)}	Compensation Recovery Unit
2004
January	165	208	⁽³⁾—	428	—	1
February	126	199	⁽³⁾—	551	—	0
March	203	247	⁽³⁾—	569	—	0
April	144	191	163	566	—	0
May	132	161	263	499	—	1
June	160	169	269	592	—	0
July	224	181	319	723	—	0
August	144	145	293	755	—	0
September	168	193	315	722	—	1
October	170	207	290	755	—	0
November	198	217	368	891	—	0
December	125	180	305	705	—	1

2005
January	148	204	289	714	—	0
February	180	213	352	962	—	0
March	235	201	328	987	—	6
April	165	196	185	793	6	3
May	106	97	185	719	2	0
June	216	127	292	789	4	0
July	230	134	290	814	3	8
August	296	98	199	754	6	3
September	232	121	210	798	9	3
October	208	101	230	820	11	2
November	238	132	242	1001	4	5
December	192	119	218	814	4	1

2006
January	199	58	207	717	4	1
February	227	73	250	873	6	0
March	335	90	296	837	6	0
April	227	83	233	649	⁽⁴⁾—	0
May	299	79	250	780	⁽⁴⁾—	0
⁽¹⁾ Figures are for MP complaints to business units; MP complaints to Chief Executive are included with other Chief Executive complaints in Annex 1 ⁽²⁾ Until April 2005, the Appeals Service included all complaints in one count ⁽³⁾ Figures could not be retrieved within the required timescale ⁽⁴⁾ The Appeals Service moved to the Department for Constitutional Affairs in April 2006.

Debt Management did not keep separate statistics for complaints and general correspondence, with all letters received being logged as correspondence regardless of content, until the roll out of the new Debt Management Complaints Process on 1 July 2005. Complaints statistics were then maintained separately from correspondence as shown.

Debt Management
	Source of Complaint
	Customer	MP	3^{( rd)} Party
2005
July	48	10	13
August	49	15	23
September	38	23	19
October	57	18	29
November	98	19	78
December	72	14	87

2006
January	118	17	132
February	134	8	131
March	208	7	174
April	162	6	89
May	141	7	49
Notes: The “3rd party” category includes next of kin, appointees and executors as well as welfare rights organisations. The “Customer” category includes both written and verbal complaints by the customer. The table reflects figures across Debt Management, including the Enforcement Initiative.

The Rent Service

The Rent Service has provided figures for the period January 2004 to April 2006.

They received 73 letters of complaint from the public, and one letter of complaint from an MP.

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Health and Safety Executive

Figures for the Health and Safety Executive are not provided as they do not deal directly with customers.

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