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:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what steps are taken to ensure that Jobcentre Plus do not advise couples that they would be better off financially if they separated; and what action is taken if Jobcentre Plus staff are found to be advising couples to separate for financial reasons. This is something, which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
I can assure you that Jobcentre Plus does not encourage couples to separate in order to receive more benefits. Our focus is to ensure that people/families receive the benefit for which they are entitled and the support required to enable them to compete effectively in the labour market. This support extends to partners of people claiming benefits.
All cases are dealt with on an individual basis according to their circumstances. There are different rules for different benefits which will be explained to customers. Our staff are fully trained to understand what is required of them. Where these standards are not met action may be taken under our performance management procedures.
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:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what targets are set for Jobcentre Plus Contact Centre telephone operators. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Jobcentre Plus Contact Centre operators’ individual performance is measured against a set of internal benchmarks. These benchmarks contribute to internal Contact Centre Key Performance Indicators, which support Jobcentre Plus Key Management Indicators and Jobcentre Plus Targets, and are kept under close review.
The enclosed table details the benchmarks that operators are currently being measured against for each of the services delivered by our contact centres.
I hope this is helpful.
Service Benchmark First Contact and Jobseeker Direct First contact services, whereby customers call to make a new claim to working age benefits. First Contact average call handling time (length of phone call with customer)—12 minutes (BT sites); eight minutes (EDS sites). (The service offered to customers is identical but the technology accounts for time differently. This will be resolved in 2007.) Jobseeker Direct-provides support and information to customers on applying for vacancies advertised with Jobcentre Plus Jobseeker Direct average call handling time—four minutes. 90 per cent. accuracy (average over the course of a year) against the Call Assessment Framework. Employer Direct Employers provide information to operators in order to advertise their vacancies with Jobcentre Plus To achieve an average call handling time of eight minutes and 30 seconds. (In some of our Employer Direct sites staff handle Jobseeker Direct calls as well as Employer Direct) Employer Direct—to spend an average of 70 per cent. of the time on the call with 30 per cent. for wrap up time. Wrap up time allows agents to deal with the admin work associated to the service they are delivering. Overseas Vacancy Team—to spend an average of 75 per cent. of the time on the call with 25 per cent. as wrap up time. Jobseeker Direct—to achieve an average call handling time of four minutes. Jobseeker Direct—to ensure an average quality score of 97 per cent. is achieved for inbound and outbound telephone contact. To ensure that vacancies input to Labour Market System meet the minimum average National Quality Benchmarks of 95 per cent. accuracy. To ensure that inbound and outbound telephone contact meets the standards required as measured through the appropriate Call Assessment Framework. National Insurance Allocation (appointment booking and admin only) To achieve an average call handling time of 13 minutes 30 seconds for the first three months and 12 minutes 30 seconds after a three month consolidation period. To achieve an average of 70 per cent. of the time on the call with 30 per cent. for wrap up time. To ensure that inbound and outbound telephone contact meets the standards required as measured through the appropriate Call Assessment Framework. 95 per cent. accuracy is achieved on completed documentation and Labour Market System client records. To achieve 95 per cent. accuracy during Call Assessments. Quality data standards of form DCI1B (form to be completed when NINO is required and agents are to make sure that the correct information is held) to achieve 95 per cent. accuracy. Benefit inspired applications—NINO appointment booked on same day as receipt. 80 per cent. of calls answered within 20 seconds. Abandonment rate of less than 5 per cent. National Benefit Fraud Hotline 90 per cent. of calls answered within three seconds. Nine minutes average call handling time. 87 per cent. talk time. 3 per cent. wrap up time. Abandoned calls/nuisance calls no higher than 20 per cent. 95 per cent. quality success rate. 70 per cent. of referrals to be passed through to fraud sectors. 48 hour turnaround from taking call to passing referrals through to appropriate fraud sector. 95 per cent. successful Departmental Central Index trace.
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:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking which Jobcentre Plus Offices were closed in each of the last four years, and in each case whether prior to closure the office was open full-time or part-time. This is something, which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
I enclose a list of the offices that were closed and have indicated in each case whether the office was open full-time or part-time prior to closure. I have placed a copy in the House of Commons Library.
Firstly, as part of the rollout of the new Jobcentre Plus network we have rationalised our estate. We inherited around 1500 offices from the former Employment Service and Benefits Agency, several of which were unsuitable for the new processes, or were in the wrong place or in a poor state of repair. Often, the former agencies had offices situated at either end of the High Street and, in some instances, neither was suitable for conversion to Jobcentre Plus so we closed one or both of them. In each District we undertook detailed service delivery planning exercises in consultation with local stakeholders, identifying the sites which we would convert to the new standard and those, which needed to close. We also explained how, particularly in more rural locations, we would offer outreach services (“flexible service delivery”).
Secondly, as a result of our programme to centralise benefit processing we have identified sites which will no longer be viable once processing work has been taken away from them.
Thirdly, we have been looking very closely at the need for public-facing sites in a number of locations. The increased availability of new channels means that Jobcentre Plus customers can access services directly by telephone or Internet rather than needing to call into one of our offices. Reducing expenditure on our office network is part of our wider strategy for focusing resources more effectively on frontline advisory services to help our customers move into work.
The list of closures should also be set against the 837 offices that we have rolled out to date under our restructuring programme, plus over 150 locations where we have installed flexible service delivery arrangements.
I would emphasise that the closure of any of our offices involves consultation with local stakeholders, including MPs, and putting in place suitable alternative arrangements for delivering services to our customers.
I hope this is helpful.