§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will institute an urgent review of the causes of the chronic jamming of switchboards and other difficulties of callers at local offices; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Gillian ShephardAll local Department of Social Security offices measure the quality of service provided over the telephone and to personal callers. Office managers are accountable for the standards achieved. Results of a national customer opinion survey conducted by local offices in October 1989 found that 80 per cent. of personal callers said the service was "very or fairly good" and more than 77 per cent. of telephone callers got through to the office in what they considered a reasonable time.
However, the Department accepts that service standards vary round the country and where there are
Limit on income support payments Number of claimants Income support expenditure Cash September 1989 prices £ (000s) £ million £ million Residential care Old age 130 58 — — Very dependent/blind elderly 155 19 — — Mental illness 130 5 — — Alcohol and drug dependence 130 2 — — Mental handicap 160 15 — — Physical handicap below pension age 190 5 — — Others 130 3 — — TOTALS — 107 565 608 Nursing homes Others including elderly 185 34 — — Mental illness 185 5 — — Alcohol and drug dependence 185 1— — — Mental handicap 200 1 — — Physical handicap below pension age 230 2 — — Terminal illness 230 4 — — TOTALS — 46 354 382 1 Denotes figures under 500. Notes
1. Numbers rounded to nearest thousand, expenditure to nearest £ million.
2. Expenditure includes income support applicable amounts for both the appropriate limit and personal expenses.
3. These estimates are based on four quarterly, one per cent., samples of live cases. Although total income support expenditure figures are available the figures for individual groups of residents are based on too small a sample to be sufficiently reliable.
4. Centrally held data from claimant records about actual charges is not statistically reliable.