The Department for Work and Pensions is investing in the deployment of technology to help prioritise the most vulnerable callers to its helplines, while encouraging others to turn to digital alternatives. The new functionality comes at a time when “call waiting times are sometimes longer than we would like”, a minister has acknowledged.
The DWP’s minister for transformation, Andrew Western, said that the department “reviews forecasted telephony demand and plans resourcing accordingly to keep wait times down”. This includes both helplines supported by civil servants and those delivered by an outsourced provider – for which “we use the key performance indicator of percentage of calls answered”, the minister said.
However, for callers to the DWP’s telephone support line for its Child Maintenance Service in particular, ministers “fully recognise” that some are left waiting too long, according to Western.
“To address this, we are working to improve the efficiency of our customer interactions through both the telephone and digital channels, and by promoting self-service online,” he added. “These are freeing up CMS resource to support customers that need to contact us by telephone.”
Across Child Maintenance and other helplines, the DWP is taking steps to prompt users – where possible – to turn to digital channels. This will then free up staff to focus answering the most urgent or high-risk calls more rapidly.
“The department is investing in a new capability that aims to better route customers to the right offer at the right time,” Western said. “This will help to reduce waiting times by supporting customers to utilise digital alternatives where appropriate, which enables telephony agents to speak to our customers that really need to speak to someone. If a customer indicates they may be at risk of physical or mental harm e.g. suicide, terminal illness, homelessness, and clinical mental health, they will be routed to a telephony agent in as short a journey as possible.”
To help the Child Maintenance phone line and bring down its heavy caseload, investments in new systems for the prioritising of calls are being complemented by additional support for staff.
The minister added: “To improve the efficiency of the service, improvements have been made to process simple actions automatically, whilst also improving training and guidance for CMS colleagues. As a result, call volumes are reducing, and improved customer service being delivered through the combination of Online and Telephone channels. CMS is working to improve all forms of communication with customers, including greater use of SMS and email as well as improving letter content.”
The use of technology to encourage phoneline users to self-serve through online channels has previously been implemented by HM Revenue and Customs, where callers are offered the chance to receive an SMS message with details of how to use digital services.
Western’s comments were made in response to two written parliamentary questions from fellow Labour MP Julia Buckley and Graham Leadbitter of the Scottish National Party.