HC Deb 05 February 1990 vol 166 cc630-1
6. Mr. Burns

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what assessment he has made of recent improvements in the speed of service provided by his Department; and to what he attributes such improvements.

20. Sir John Hunt

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what assessment he has made of recent improvements in the speed of service provided by his Department; and to what he attributes such improvements.

Mrs. Gillian Shephard

With permission, Mr. Speaker, I should like to answer question 6 together with question 20.

Ms. Short

No. That is outrageous.

Mr. Speaker

Order. It is a matter for the Minister; questions are sometimes linked in this way, although it is unusual.

Mrs. Shephard

Since the Government reforms were introduced in 1988, the social security system has become simpler for claimants to understand and easier for staff to operate. As a result, there have been very real all-round improvements in standards of service to the public. In 1989–90, the average time taken to clear income support claims, and the average time that income support callers spend in our offices, have both improved by 24 per cent. compared with average processing and waiting times before the reforms.

Mr. Burns

My hon. Friend's answer will be warmly welcomed throughout the country. May I, however, draw to her attention a problem of which I have been informed by the Chelmsford Children's Society? A Catch-22 has developed. The problem of homelessness has been accentuated because of the time that elapses between the submission of an application for housing benefit and the receipt of the benefit, because it takes so long to process an application. Can my hon. Friend's Department do anything to speed up the process and eliminate the problem?

Mrs. Shephard

I think that my hon. Friend will know that the administration of housing benefit is the responsibility of local housing authorities, which are expected to clear housing benefit claims within 14 days. The undue delay that my hon. Friend mentions should not take place. It is unacceptable that housing authorities should prevent vulnerable groups from receiving money made available to them by the Government.

Sir John Hunt

To what extent is the welcome improvement in clearance times due to the operation of the Freeline service that is being increasingly used, particularly by those who find it difficult to put their problems into writing? Has not that been a helpful innovation?

Mrs. Shephard

I agree with my hon. Friend. The Freeline service now receives 1 million calls a year. That includes a service in a number of ethnic languages.

Mr. Robert Hughes

Does not the Minister realise the humiliation that her Department is heaping upon claimants for both mobility allowance and attendance allowance? The position of many of them will not improve. However, renewal of their benefit seems automatically to be refused. They have to wait months for their appeal to be heard and sometimes they have to go much further than that before their just demands are met. There is no point in saying that the time taken has improved. Their humiliation now is much greater.

Mrs. Shephard

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the fact that there has been a considerable improvement in waiting times for administering those benefits. I shall give him the details of those improvements if he cares to write to me.

Mr. Pike

Is not the Minister concerned about the great poverty and difficulty that many people suffer due to the time that it takes to hear appeals? That may not be the responsibility of her Department, but will she exert every pressure to ensure that appeals relating to all forms of benefit are dealt with as speedily as possible?

Mrs. Shephard

The hon. Gentleman is right when he says that the time taken before appeals can be heard and settled causes great distress to claimants. We shall continue to review any improvements that it might be possible to make.