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 7 March 2008:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what assessment he has made of the efficacy of the telephony service in Jobcentres. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The modernisation of our telephone service means it is easier for customers to call and speak to the right person or department without having to be transferred, and to receive a more efficient and professional service. Our service is now more flexible as it enables customers to access our services by telephone from their home over longer hours than was previously possible, and avoids them having to visit their local office to make a claim, enquire about benefits and/or seek access for job search support.
We deal with over 69,000 calls every weekday to our contact centres. We are currently answering 95.8% of calls to our new claims service. Similarly for customers seeking to access our job broking services we are achieving 94.4% of calls answered.
Following the introduction of the telephone service for Social Fund Crisis Loans we have experienced an increase of between 41-114% in call volumes (depending on the site) month on month compared to two years ago for applications to the Social Fund Crisis Loans service and as a result some offices have struggled to cope. To improve this service we are currently deploying an additional 700 staff based in our contact centres. This has enabled us to answer over 90% of calls and take nearly 40,000 applications per week.
Jobcentre Plus is continually looking for ways of improving its services and we are discussing with our telephone service providers what changes could be made to improve queue management. We are making a significant investment in the most up to date telephony infrastructure to upgrade both telephony and the available management information, to enable the effective handling of peaks and troughs of the calls we receive. The new management information system will also provide us with improved data to help monitor and develop our telephony service.