§ 11. Mr. DunnTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what he is doing to speed up the service for social security claimants.
§ Mrs. Gillian ShephardWe are building on the success of the 1988 social security reforms which have made the scheme easier for the public to understand and simpler for staff to operate. As a result in 1989–90 there has been a 20 per cent. improvement in the average time taken to process income support claims compared with 1987–88 and a 24 per cent. reduction in the average time income support and social fund callers spend in our offices.
I am aware, however, that there is still room for further improvement particularly in certain inner cities. We are tackling this by relocating some work, which requires no face-to-face contact, away from London to areas where we have fewer problems over staff recruitment and retention. In addition between now and 1991, we expect our programme to computerise social security operations in all local offices to make a major impact on the speed and accuracy of the service they provide.