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Social Security Benefits

Volume 482: debated on Tuesday 4 November 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average processing time for (a) disability living allowance and (b) pension credit applications was (i) in each of the smallest geographical areas for which information is available and (ii) in total in each quarter of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. (230481)

The information is as follows:

(a) Disability living allowance

Please see the following table giving the DLA New Claim (Normal Rules) year to date (YTD) average actual clearance times (AACT) in each of the new claim business units for DLA for each quarter of the last five years and the equivalent DLA national figure.

2003-042004-05

YTD DLA NR Claims AACT

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Edinburgh

36.4

36.6

36.7

37.9

40.6

39.3

39.1

38.0

Newcastle

32.4

32.3

31.9

32.1

35.3

35.5

35.0

34.7

Leeds

41.0

40.4

39.2

37.5

34.2

34.2

32.7

32.3

Manchester

33.5

34.4

35.5

35.8

38.1

36.3

35.4

34.2

Bootle

35.3

36.4

37.2

37.5

37.0

37.7

36.1

34.7

Midlands

34.5

35.8

35.6

35.0

33.5

33.6

32.9

32.4

Bristol

37.3

40.6

40.5

39.2

38.3

38.3

36.0

34.5

Wales

36.5

40.6

40.1

39.0

35.7

37.3

36.7

35.4

Wembley

41.0

42.3

43.0

43.0

35.1

35.6

35.8

36.0

Sutton

40.3

40.8

40.6

40.3

36.3

36.5

36.1

36.3

Glasgow

39.1

39.3

38.4

37.9

35.8

36.0

33.9

32.6

DCPU5 NCU

Bootle NE

Wales NE

DCPU 1 NCU

National

38.8

39.9

40.0

39.7

37.5

37.7

36.7

36.2

2005-062006-07

YTDDLA NR Claims AACT

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Edinburgh

38.0

39.3

38.5

37.9

36.9

37.7

37.5

36.7

Newcastle

35.8

37.7

37.9

38.0

38.2

40.1

40.3

Leeds

30.9

31.2

30.7

30.9

33.6

35.4

35.2

35.2

Manchester

29.2

29.3

29.7

29.7

29.4

32.3

35.0

35.7

Bootle

32.8

32.7

32.4

31.6

32.9

34.4

35.5

35.8

Midlands

29.9

31.3

31.7

31.7

32.0

32.1

33.2

34.2

Bristol

31.5

33.5

34.6

34.4

43.2

42.8

43.7

44.4

Wales

31.9

33.7

34.7

35.0

34.9

35.4

37.1

37.8

Wembley

33.2

33.4

33.7

34.6

38.6

38.7

39.5

39.7

Sutton

40.4

40.6

40.7

40.9

Glasgow

31.9

35.1

36.4

36.7

31.7

33.5

34.4

33.8

DCPU 5 NCU

20.3

25.9

29.8

30.6

29.6

29.6

30.3

30.0

Bootle NE

34.8

Wales NE

34.1

DCPU 1 NCU

National

33.5

__34.3

34.5

34.5

35.0

35.8

36.7

36.8

2007-082008-09

YTDDLA NR Claims AACT

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Edinburgh

34.0

35.7

37.3

36.6

Newcastle

Leeds

34.2

33.0

31.6

30.7

25.8

25.1

Manchester

35.2

34.5

34.2

32.9

28.4

27.8

Bootle

36.5

36.8

37.5

35.5

29.2

29.9

Midlands

37.5

38.3

37.2

35.8

29.0

29.7

Bristol

46.6

44.5

43.5

40.5

29.2

29.0

Wales

37.6

37.0

36.1

34.7

29.2

30.8

Wembley

42.5

43.0

43.0

41.1

29.5

30.3

Sutton

Glasgow

33.2

35.7

35.1

34.2

30.8

31.8

DCPU 5 NCU

27.6

31.7

33.6

32.6

31.7

32.9

Bootle NE

37.8

37.9

37.9

37.0

32.3

32.4

Wales NE

36.6

36.4

35.7

34.1

29.3

31.4

DCPU 1 NCU

12.4

16.9

National

36.9

37.7

37.5

36.0

29.5

29.8

Notes: DLA AACT target: 2003-04 = 42 days, 2004-08 = 39 days and 2008-09 = 38 days. When Sutton DBC was closed the DLA new claims work was transferred to DCPU 5 New Claims Unit. When Newcastle DBC was closed the DLA new claims work was transferred to the Bootle and Wales offices (Bootle North East and Wales North East). When Edinburgh DBC was closed down the DLA new claims work was transferred to DCPU 1 New Claims Unit. 2. The table above shows that for the majority of the units the YTD target for DLA New Claims was met, this despite the target being reduced from 42 days in 2003-04 to 38 days for this year. Over this period all units have seen a steady reduction in their YTD performance ranging from a decrease of 15.9 days at Leeds DBC to 4.8 days at Midlands DBC, from the first quarter of 2003-04 to the second quarter of 2008-09. Also throughout this period the national YTD performance was below target for all of the quarters and reduced from 38.8 days in the first quarter of 2003-04 to 29.8 days in the second quarter of 2008-09, a decrease of nine days. Source: RDA 80123 Monthly Reports.

(b) Pension credit

Please see the following table giving the pension credit new claim year to date (YTD) average actual clearance times (AACT) in each of the current Pension Centres for each quarter of the last five years and the equivalent pension credit national figure.

2003-042004-05

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Burnley

9.4

17.2

23.8

19.8

9.7

10.7

9.3

7.0

Cwmbran

2.8

7.4

4.5

3.6

4.1

4.6

6.3

5.4

Dundee

14.5

10.3

10.7

7.1

6.8

7.7

12.5

12.2

Leicester

8.6

11.3

13.4

8.6

9.7

12.0

17.3

13.2

London

7,9

8.8

13.5

12.6

10.0

14.7

15.1

12.2

Motherwell

17.1

17.6

16.5

11.9

8.8

9.9

15.0

14.4

Seaham

6.4

6.3

9.2

6.5

6.4

8.2

12.1

8.1

Stockport

16.8

18.6

14.8

11.6

11.5

11.1

11.6

10.7

Swansea

12.1

13.8

12.5

9.4

10.2

10.7

11.7

10.0

Warrington

13.4

12.1

9.8

7.6

7.0

8.9

15.3

9.7

National

9.7

11.4

14.3

11.1

9.2

10.9

12.3

10.2

2005-062006-07

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Burnley

8.0

10.9

10.0

9.9

11.0

6.4

8.0

15.1

Cwmbran

6.5

7.5

7.1

6.4

7.6

6.5

9.7

12.9

Dundee

8.6

8.3

10.0

7.2

8.6

9.5

11.9

14.2

Leicester

11.0

13.7

12.0

12.8

10.5

6.7

10.9

14.9

London

11.1

9.2

8.8

10.5

12.8

12.2

17.7

20.4

Motherwell

12.0

10.3

7.2

6.5

8.4

12.0

12.0

16.6

Seaham

7.7

9.7

8.7

11.0

9.5

10.4

12.7

15.6

Stockport

8.4

8.8

8.3

8.5

11.5

11.6

17.8

23.6

Swansea

9.4

9.2

9.3

9.5

12.8

9.8

15.1

14.4

Warrington

7.0

7.4

10.0

12.1

9.0

9.9

12.4

16.6

National

8.8

8.5

8.5

9.1

10.1

9.7

12.7

15.8

2007-082008-09

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Burnley

15.4

15.9

12.4

11.0

11.5

10.5

Cwmbran

9.9

9.5

8.4

9.6

9.3

9.1

Dundee

14.3

14.2

11.8

11.4

11.9

12.0

Leicester

19.0

24.2

28.1

15.1

16.1

19.3

London

17.8

13.8

11.5

13.6

12.5

12.4

Motherwell

15.3

16.7

11.9

14.2

15.4

16.0

Seaham

15.7

15.0

16.2

16.7

11.6

11.7

Stockport

19.2

24.0

24.2

23.8

18.5

19.8

Swansea

12.4

13.4

16.2

17.0

17.3

17.3

Warrington

15.8

18.8

15.8

13.1

16.4

18.7

National

15.2

16.7

15.8

14.9

14.3

14.9

Notes: Pension Credit AACT target: 2003-07 = 10 days, 2007-09 = 15 days. As part of the Transformation Programme, the ten Pension Centres shown above now deal with all pension credit applications. In 2003, there were 26 pension centres and there has been a gradual reduction to present state. The target of 10 days was eased to 15 days to allow the new transformation processes to be embedded within the organisation. Currently, at a national level the 15-day target is being achieved. Source: Management Information System Programme.

The pension centres deal with the following geographic areas:

Geographic area

Burnley

Norfolk, Cambs, Herts, Essex, Cumbria, Beds, Suffolk and North Lanes

Cwmbran

Hants, Berks, Oxon, Bucks, IOW, Gloucs and Wilts

Dundee

East and North Scotland, Highlands, North and South Yorkshire and East Riding

Leicester

Leics, Northants, Notts and Lincs

London

London and Surrey

Motherwell

Ayrshire, North and South Lanarkshire, Glasgow, West Scotland, Kent, East and West Sussex

Seaham

North East, Bradford and Keighley

Stockport

Worcs, Warwicks, Shropshire, Staffs, Birmingham, Herefords and Derbys

Swansea

Wales and South West

Warrington

Lanes, Merseyside and Manchester