Annex
WORK AND PENSIONS SELECT COMMITTEE 9 NOVEMBER
RESPONSES TO
WRITTEN QUESTIONS
Your memorandum (3.3) (ie the Jobcentre Plus memorandum)
refers to a programme to centralise benefit processing operations.
What benefits do you expect to derive from this and will it involve
any outsourcing of staff?
The plan for centralising benefit processing
forecasts savings in staff costs and reduced Jobcentre Plus estate
running costs.
Of the 25% total staff costs efficiency savings planned,
10% are directly attributable to the centralisation of benefit
processing, whilst the remaining 15% will be delivered by other
efficiency initiatives as part of the Delivering Our Vision Programme.
The centralisation of benefit processing facilitates the closure
of 37 buildings by March 2008. Current planning assumptions in
the centralisation of benefit processing do not include any outsourcing
of staff. Savings currently identified are not predicated on outsourcing
of staff, but in the reduction of overall headcount.
Jobcentre Plus expects centralisation to support
better performance management and, over time, workflow management.
It will also provide a more compact base for future IT improvements.
The Public Accounts Committee recently reported
that "the recent major re-organisation to form Jobcentre
Plus and the Pension Service led to an increase in the level of
errors by officials." What are you doing to reduce error
levels?
Reducing monetary value of fraud and error in the
primary benefits is one of the main Jobcentre Plus performance
targets.
Jobcentre Plus is introducing Standard Operating
Models covering its key business processes. A component of the
model covering new claims has already been published and further
components covering claims maintenance are in advanced stages
of development. Compliance with the Standard Model will reduce
official error.
Jobcentre Plus has introduced a new benefit Case
Management Framework to improve accuracy. Managers identify areas
at a local level where performance in benefit accuracy needs improving.
The Framework is then used as an improvement toolkit. Managers
look at the performance of different job roles and specific categories
where performance needs to be improved. The Framework sets standards
and provides access to appropriate supporting material such as
training packages, instructions and desk aids.
The Jobcentre Plus regime of mandatory management
checks of benefit payments has been reviewed. A new checking regime
allowing better targeting of checks to problem areas is currently
being piloted in three districts with national implementation
scheduled for early 2006.
Jobcentre Plus analyses findings on main causes of
error regularly and develops specific performance improvement
measures to tackle the main causes of error. Measures introduced
include changes to systems, instructions, training materials and
supporting products.
In the five months covered by its 2004-05 accounts,
the Disability and Carers Service paid £251,000 in compensation
to customers whose cases had been badly handled. What was the
figure for Jobcentre Plus during 2004-05 and how do you learn
lessons from these cases?
In 2004-05, Jobcentre Plus paid £2 million
in compensation to customers whose cases had been badly handled,
in line with the Department's Special Payment Scheme.
In order to improve the decision making process,
and to ensure that claims for compensation are made quickly and
lessons learnt, Special Payment Teams are encouraged to:
— share best practice via regular
attendance at staff meetings.
This includes providing regular reports on the
amount of compensation paid and common errors to senior managers.
All Jobcentre Plus Special Payment Teams attend
quarterly networking meetings to share best practice and discuss
and seek resolution to difficult cases and common issues.
Management information on customer complaints
and compensation paid is collated on a quarterly basis for the
Jobcentre Plus Business Report; this is distributed to all senior
managers, including the Board.
The Disability and Carers Service is in the process
of introducing a new scheme—Accreditation of Decision Makers—which
aims to develop consistency and standards of decision-making.
Are you planning to introduce a similar scheme for Jobcentre Plus?
Jobcentre Plus has not yet come to a view about
accreditation of Decision Makers. The Agency is actively reviewing
its decision-making processes and targets in the light of recent
reports by the NAO and the Decision Making Standards Committee.
How successfully does Jobcentre Plus work with
other DWP agencies, particularly the Disability and Carers Service,
the Child Support Agency, the Pension Service and local authorities
and how could these arrangements be improved?
Successful working relationships with other agencies
are fundamental to much of the work of Jobcentre Plus.
Jobcentre Plus recognises that some aspects of particular
relationships have not worked as well as they should and work
is in hand to improve them. In particular, a new team in Jobcentre
Plus, the Governmental Partnerships Team, has been given responsibility
for ensuring, for example, that there are clear, consistent and
up to date partnership agreements and that the right mechanisms
are in place for tackling issues and exchanging good practice.
Jobcentre Plus has Partnership Agreements with most
of the other main agencies within DWP and with HM Revenue and
Customs and the Local Authorities. They cover a wide range of
process relationships that are crucial to the delivery of both
the back to work and benefit agendas.
Specifically, Jobcentre Plus has an important role
to play in assisting the Child Support Agency (CSA) to deliver
its strategic plan. Jobcentre Plus liaises regularly with CSA
on operational issues: as well as working together at a national
level there are a number of joint steering groups and regional
liaison meetings that look at issue resolution and sharing of
good practice.
Your accounts state that Jobcentre Plus has given
formal guarantee in respect of a bank overdraft for Remploy Limited
up to a maximum of £15 million (page 106). They continue
that at 31 March 2005, £14.3 million of the overdraft facility
had been utilised. Have you been asked to increase that level
of guarantee?
Jobcentre Plus has not been asked to increase the
level of the guarantee. During the current financial year Remploy
have not exceeded their overdraft limit, and there has been no
request to do so. If, as part of the business planning process
between the Remploy Board, the Department for Work and Pensions
and Jobcentre Plus, any such increase were to be proposed, this
would be strictly subject to approval by Parliament.
As part of the ongoing financial and governance arrangements
between Jobcentre Plus and Remploy, the Secretary of State, with
Parliamentary approval, can agree an overdraft limit for the company.
This is commensurate with the company's need for sufficient Working
Capital in its businesses, and is in line with the Financial Memorandum
and Management Statement between Jobcentre Plus and Remploy.
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