To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many maternity allowance claims remained unprocessed at the end of each quarter in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement; (230290)

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 for Work and Pensions has asked me to reply to your questions on the processing of Maternity Allowance applications. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.

The target for clearing Maternity Allowance claims is 20 days and we expect to clear 4,800 claims within this timescale. Therefore, our normal “head of work”, which is the amount of claims we expect to have outstanding at any one time, is 4,800 claims. Statistical information regarding Maternity Allowance claims is only available from April 2006. We have provided quarterly data from April 2006 to September 2008.

Clearance times for Maternity Allowance increased slightly this year over the summer months resulting in a backlog of 7,000 cases awaiting action. This was as a result of an increase in births leading to an increase in Maternity Allowance applications by a fifth. This increase also coincided with the centralisation of the administration of Maternity Allowance claims between December 2007 and August 2008 into four Benefit Delivery Centres covering the whole country and a temporary dip in productivity associated with retraining existing members of staff. The backlog has now been cleared and we have returned to our normal “head of work”.

Information relating to the proportion of Maternity Allowance claims processed within 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 49 and 63 days is not held.

Statistical information regarding details of staff working on Maternity Allowance claims is only available from April 2006. We have provided quarterly data from April 2006 to June 2008. Data for the second quarter of 2008 is not yet available, however, we have provided the average figure incorporating August 2008 data.

The figures quoted relate to staff working on Maternity Allowance new claims and maintenance activities and also include any general support duties and related Maternity Allowance work, including acting as telephone point of contact for all enquiries relating to claims and maintenance. It should be noted however, that before benefit centralisation many staff working on other benefits often helped on Maternity Allowance and this work would not have been recorded on the system. Therefore figures are not comparable year on year.