People phoning the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) collectively spent more than 753 years waiting for calls to be answered in 2023/24, a report has found.
The wait time applied to more than 40 million calls made – although more than six million of these were abandoned.
It was revealed following the latest customer service survey carried out by the independent National Audit Office (NAO).
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More than 20 million people in the UK rely on pensions or benefits from the DWP, with £268.5bn paid out in 2023/24 – and some £7.3bn spent on running the department.
The NAO found pensioners were more likely to be satisfied with the services they received (93%), while those receiving personal independence payment (Pip) less so (77%).
The report also found that only 52% of Pip claims were processed within the target of 75 working days, while 96% of new state pension claims were completed within the expected timeframe of 10 working days.
The NAO said the number of people claiming benefits and the state pension has risen from 20.3 million in May 2019 to 22.7 million in May 2023.
Most of this was down to Universal Credit claims increasing during the pandemic, and the volume of Pips rising due to more people being out of work with long-term health issues.
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When it comes to answering phone calls faster, the report said: “[DWP] told us it is planning to make more use of text messages to update customers, but noted that providing up-to-date information is not straightforward because of the range and complexity of its services.”
The NAO said the DWP’s “limited transparency about service standards” makes it more likely people will call for an update.
Across eight benefits checked by DWP, it was estimated 31.6 million minutes of phone calls were avoidable – around 43% of time spent on the phone – during the 2022/23 period.
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A DWP spokesperson said: “We acknowledge the challenges set out in this report and are committed to providing an efficient and compassionate welfare system.
“While it recognised the majority of new benefits claims were processed on time, our modernisation programme will help drive improvements in customer service, including improving support for Pip applications and a new online application service.”