§ Mr. BarnesTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) when the chief executive of the Benefits, Agency acknowledged case MOB/172/8898 pursued by the hon. Member for Derbyshire, North-East (ref. DB102919); when a reply was received; and what was the reason for the time taken;
(2) when the chief executive of the Benefits Agency will send an acknowledgement and reply to the hon. Member for Derbyshire, North-East to a letter sent on 14 September concerning the case of the person with the national insurance number JE 54 08 98 C;
(3) when the chief executive of the Benefits Agency will send acknowledgements and replies to the hon. Member for Derbyshire, North-East for letters sent on 7 August, 14 and 16 September concerning the case of the person with the national insurance number ZT 349 447A;
(4) when the chief executive of the Benefits Agency will reply to the letter sent to him by the hon. Member for Derbyshire, North-East on 6 July concerning case NM 139 765A and acknowledged by the Benefits Agency on 27 July under its reference DB 103229; when there will be a follow up to his Department's reference S6/3193/5 of 5 August on 280W this case; and what record he holds of the number of telephone calls that have been made by the hon. Member for Derbyshire, North-East in connection with this matter.
§ Mr. ScottCorrespondence about operational matters is the responsibility of Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter from M. Bichard to Mr. Harry Barnes, dated 3 November 1992:
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to the points raised in your recent Parliamentary Questions to the Secretary of State for Social Security relating to the replies to letters you had sent about individual constituents.
All four letters relate to disability benefits processed at the Fylde Benefits Directorate. Regrettably because of the heavy workload at the Directorate following the introduction of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and the volume of correspondence this has generated there have been some delays in replying to Members' letters about these benefits. I can assure you that all the cases are receiving urgent attention but replies are sometimes delayed whilst the individual case is resolved. Once the backlog of claims has been cleared it will be possible to respond to correspondence much more promptly. In the meantime I apologise for the delays on the cases referred to in your questions.
The situation on each of these is as follows:—
- Case MOB/172/8898
- An acknowledgement is not normally sent by the Benefits Agency when a Minister has written to the Member confirming a letter has been passed to me to reply. In this case an interim reply was sent on 10 June explaining that a full reply was not yet possible. A final reply was sent on 19 August. The delay in replying was due to the heavy workload at the DLA Unit.
- Case JE540898C
- I apologise that your letter to me of 14 September was not acknowledged. I replied to you on 28 October with full details of the award made to this customer.
- Case ZT349447A
- Again I am sorry that your letters were not acknowledged. This was a mistake on the part of my correspondence section. I replied to your letter on 2 November.
- Case NM139765A
- I replied to your letter on 2 November with full details of the award made to this customer. The DLA Unit has a record of five telephone calls from your office about this case.
I hope you will find this reply helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report. Copies are also being placed in the Library.