Press Release - Department of Work and
Pensions: Communicating with customers
May 7 2009
Full Report - Department of
Work and Pensions: Communicating with customers
The Department for Work and Pensions has made progress in
reducing the number of leaflets that it produces for its customers
and in making application forms simpler and shorter, a National
Audit Office report has today found. The Department has
significantly changed the way in which it provides information in
recent years with a growth in telephone enquiries and in online
provision, although there is still progress to be made in moving
services online. Some forms are still unnecessarily long and
guidance notes are complicated and the Department’s computer
generated letters are overly long and confusing for
customers.
Since the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) reported on government
forms in 2004 and the use of leaflets in 2007, the Department, in
line with PAC recommendations, has reduced the quantity of leaflets
that it produces for customers, from 208 different leaflets in 2005
at a cost of £10.3 million to 53 leaflets in 2008 costing £1.7
million. It has also reduced the length of its forms. However, some
of its application forms and standard letters are still too
lengthy, such as the application form for Disability Living
Allowance which is 45 pages long.
The Department has put telephone calls at the centre of its
application process. It is also increasingly using the internet to
communicate with customers. In response to the rise in applications
for the Jobseeker’s Allowance, up by 81 per cent in the six months
to January 2009, the Department plans to implement systems giving
customers the option of full online applications for contributory
Jobseeker’s Allowance from summer 2009, rather than February 2010
as originally planned. More efficiency gains from online provision
are possible, but investment in the new systems necessary is
expected to take a number of years.
The Department has realised cost savings of almost £9 million by
reducing the volume of printed leaflets. But cost efficiencies from
online provision have still to be realised fully. Though forms can
be downloaded from the internet it is not yet possible to apply for
most benefits online, meaning that staff and customer time is taken
up handling claims over the telephone or face to face.
Tim Burr, head of the National Audit Office, said
today:
"The Department has made a determined effort to reduce reliance on
burdensome long letters and piles of leaflets and has improved the
efficiency of its communications with customers. It could, however,
improve performance further by moving more of its services online.
Where paper forms and letters are still necessary, it should make
them more straightforward for the customer, particularly for the
elderly and other vulnerable people."
Notes for Editors
1. Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website, which is at www.nao.org.uk. Hard
copies can be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702
3474.
2. The Comptroller and Auditor General, Tim Burr, is the head of
the National Audit Office which employs some 850 staff. He and the
NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
Press Notice 28/09
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