To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) longest and (b) mean waiting times to his Department's (i) universal credit helpline and (ii) 0345 phone lines.
Answered on
18 July 2017
The range of average speed of answer to the Universal Credit Live Service, Universal Credit Digital (Full Service) and 0345 telephone lines (excluding Universal Credit) are shown in the table below. Mean average waiting times are not recorded.
Range Shortest | Range Longest | |
Universal Credit - Live Service | 2 minutes 28 seconds | 4 minutes 24 seconds |
Universal Credit Digital (Full Service) | 1 minute 38 seconds | 13 minutes 18 seconds |
All other 0345 Lines (excluding Universal Credit) | 2 minutes 24 seconds | 4 minutes 3 seconds |
Notes: Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution. Performance variation should be viewed in the context of a wide range of operational impacts occurring; this includes caller demand, system stability, changes to process and adviser capacity.
Source: BT - Operational Management Information System (OPMIS)