Department for Work and Pensions: Members
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent progress his Department has made on reducing the time taken to provide a substantive response to casework enquiries from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Andrew Western
The Department recognises that response times to casework enquiries from Members of Parliament have been impacted by increased volumes and the complexity of cases requiring 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.
As a result of these measures, the Department has begun to reduce outstanding backlogs and increase case-handling capacity, helping to improve response times for hon. Members.
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.
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