Department for Work and Pensions: Correspondence
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plans to respond to outstanding casework queries from the hon. Member for Leeds Central and Headingley dated between December 2025 and April 2026.
Answered by Andrew Western
The department recognises there have been some delays to complaint responses due to increased volumes of complex complaints requiring more detailed investigation.
To address this, the Department has deployed additional resources to complaints and correspondence teams, prioritised the reduction of backlogs, strengthened performance monitoring, introduced enhanced senior oversight, and improved case management processes to support faster and more consistent responses.
Where a complaint requires formal investigation, the Department aims to provide a full response within 15 working days. More complex cases may take longer, but customers are kept informed of progress and expected timescales.
The Department is committed to ensuring that hon. Members receive timely and accurate information on behalf of their constituents and is taking urgent action to restore performance to expected standards.
The Department regrets the delays in responding to queries from the hon. Member for Leeds Central and Headingley submitted between December 2025 and April 2026. Most responses have now been issued. Five cases were responded to on 11 June 2026 as a priority, and the remaining two, which require more complex action, were responded to on 12 June 2026 and 15 June 2026.
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