Child Benefit: Telephone Services

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of calls to the Child Benefit Helpline were (a) answered by a representative, (b) received an automated message, (c) logged with the promise of a call-back and (d) responded to in another manner in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. (223434)

[holding answer 10 September 2008]: I have been asked to reply.

The table below provides the details of the information requested where it is available. In answer to part (b) all calls received by the Child Benefit Helpline receive an automated message of some kind. It is not possible to calculate the relative proportions of the different groups with the information available.

Child Benefit	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
(b) Calls received¹	n/a	5,041,079	3,687,025	4,026,335	4,806,978
(a) Calls Handled²	n/a	3,360,272	3,091,750	3,483,386	4,336,202
(c)	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
(d)	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
¹ Calls received: where the caller selected an option from the call steering menu and was put in a queue to speak to an adviser. ² Calls handled: where the caller spoke to an adviser.

Volume 480: debated on Wednesday 8 October 2008