The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 28 June 2006:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question regarding the average time taken to rate a claim for (a) Jobseeker's Allowance and (b) Income Support in (i) Peterborough constituency and (ii) the Peterborough city council area in each of the last 10 years. This falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Our measure of the time taken to process a claim is the actual average clearance time. Prior to April 2006 the Jobcentre Plus internal key management indicator for processing claims for Income Support (IS) and Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) was 12 working days. Since April 2006, these key management indicators have become official Jobcentre Plus targets; the IS clearance target is 11 days and the JSA clearance target is 12 days.
I am unable to provide information for the last 10 years as our system only holds data from April 2002 when Jobcentre Plus began operations.
For the period April 2002 to March 2005, information is available for the old Peterborough Jobcentre Plus district, which included the constituency of Peterborough and the Peterborough city council area. From April 2005 information is only available for the whole of Cambridgeshire.
The available information is in the following tables.
Benefit Target in days Actual average clearance time in days April 2002 to March 2003 Income Support 12 14.44 Jobseeker's Allowance 12 12.19 April 2003 to March 2004 Income Support 12 19.65 Jobseeker's Allowance 12 12.38 April 2004 to March 2005 Income Support 12 16.84 Jobseeker's Allowance 12 12.45
Benefit Target in days Actual average clearance time in days April 2005 to March 2006 Income Support 12 13.99 Jobseeker's Allowance 12 12.72 April 2006 to May 2006 Income Support 11 17.37 Jobseeker's Allowance 12 17.47 Source: Jobcentre Plus Management Information System Programme.
Jobcentre Plus is transforming the service it provides by making it available via the telephone, via the internet and through the personal service offered to people in Jobcentre Plus offices. We are also committed to implementing a major efficiency programme to deliver headcount savings.
On 30 January we launched a national action plan designed to reduce clearance times. The plan focuses on providing delivery units with specific tools and best practice guidance to enable them to improve their performance. Senior operational managers provided a formal assurance at the end of February that they were complying with all elements of the national action plan.
The chief operating officer is monitoring performance very closely and is addressing performance variations in benefit clearance times in specific locations and the actions required to clear backlogs. It should be acknowledged that concentrating on backlogs of work may initially cause average clearance times to rise.
I hope this is helpful.