Department for Work and Pensions: Correspondence
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has any plans to offer engagement calls with hon. Members' offices to resolve ongoing cases expediently, such as the ones offered by the Home Office.
Answered by Andrew Western
The Department for Work and Pensions recognise the importance of timely resolution of constituents’ cases and remains committed to supporting Members of Parliament and their offices in progressing enquiries. The Department already provides channels for MPs’ offices to escalate and resolve cases. This includes dedicated MP hotlines as an escalation route for urgent non-complex matters and MP engagement sessions.
The Department continues to keep its approach to stakeholder engagement under ongoing review to improve responsiveness and collaboration with hon. Members’ offices, including exploring opportunities to resolve cases more efficiently where appropriate.
Whilst the Department recognises that response times have not consistently met expectations in recent months due to increased volumes and a greater number of complex cases requiring detailed investigation, improving timeliness remains a key operational priority.
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.
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