Scottish Social Security Consortium

Minutes of meeting: 29 September 2005

Present:
Abigail Bremner, Citizens Advice Scotland
Judith Paterson, Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland
Susan Rew, One Parent Families Scotland
Angela Toal, Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland
Jo Whitfield, The Action Group
Ken Bramham, Change manager, Jobcentre Plus
Suzanne Fountain, Jobcentre Plus

Welcome

Judith Paterson welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Telephone Claiming through Jobcentre Plus

Ken Bramham explained that his role was to aid the implementation of the Government's welfare to work programme by managing the transformation of old Jobcentre and social security offices into Jobcentre Plus offices. There was an IT aspect to this, but also an estates management aspect.

There were 66 'rolled out' Jobcentre Plus offices in Scotland, with about 40 still to be converted. Although Scotland had kept its geographical identity in the recent restructuring, there had been changes at a district level with amalgamations to form six districts in Scotland. The rolled out Jobcentre Plus offices could be distinguished because they were open plan with self-accessed 'jobpoints' as well as 'warm phones' and floor walkers.

The preferred method of contact for Jobcentre Plus was now the telephone, with each local office ('local service outlet') being linked into a contact centre which dealt with initial claims for the main Jobcentre Plus benefits. In some areas, there were no local offices. However, there would be some form of 'flexible delivery' in the form of jobpoints in local venues etc. - Jobcentre Plus was trying to develop links with health agencies so that staff could be available to offer back to work advice. Jobcentre Plus was in the process of moving to a model which used centralised 'benefits processing centres' - with the end result being a smaller number of larger offices.

The background to this situation was the Government decision to significantly reduce staff. With limited staff numbers, it would not be possible for Jobcentre Plus to keep up all its offices. They were trying to capitalise on their use of information and communications technology (ICT) - e.g. telephones, email, digital TV - to plug the gap. There was an acceptance that there had to be a computer system to support these new ways of working.

Customer Management System

CMS was the software system used by Jobcentre Plus staff in contact centres to manage their interaction with the customer. It provided prompts to take staff through the relevant processes, recorded the claimant's details and could talk to the other software systems the DWP used to process its main benefits. Ken accepted that there had been problems with CMS - both from a staff and a customer perspective. Part of the purpose of attending today's meeting was to minimise the impact on claimants.

The CMS had originally been piloted in Livingston. The Government's vision was to have one contact from the customer, with one member of Jobcentre Plus staff carrying out a single interview that would capture all the information needed. The CMS is the information gathering system which supports this. As well as being a more pleasant experience for claimants, it should also save Jobcentre Plus staff time in relation to re-contacting claimants, speaking to each other and re-entering information into different computer systems.

The process works as follows:

• Inbound call - to a 'First Contact Officer' who gathers initial information about the claim (approximately 15 mins).
• Outbound call - First Contact Officer will make an appointment to call the claimant back to get further information for the claim (approximately 20 mins).
• The CMS deals with jobseeker's allowance, income support and incapacity benefit, as well as collecting information for the Child Support Agency and housing/council tax benefit. It can be used to identify potential entitlement to carer's allowance, bereavement benefits, maternity allowance and industrial injuries disablement benefit.
• The claimant will then receive an appointment to visit a Jobcentre Plus office.
• At this appointment, their documentation will be verified by a 'Financial Assessor', who will focus on their benefits situation (approximately 20 mins) - this is usually the first appointment.
• They will then attend a work-focused interview with a 'Personal Adviser'.
• There is then the potential for another 5 minutes with the Financial Assessor to mop up any additional benefits issues raised at the work-focused interview.

If claimants cannot use the telephone, then it is possible to come into a local office to have a claim dealt with. It is also possible to phone the contact centre and arrange for a call-back to happen at a local Jobcentre Plus office. Home visits can also be carried out. However, Ken was keen to stress that the DWP saw a strict difference between those who cannot use the telephone and those who do not want to use the telephone. In the latter case, claimants will be directed to use the telephone services.

In relation to housing/council tax benefit, Ken pointed out that they had consulted widely with local authorities about their information requirements. The new upgrade of CMS contained lots of amendments to take account of their requirements.

Advice to staff was that face-to-face contact rather than telephone contact may be appropriate for people with e.g. hearing difficulties, language issues requiring an interpreter, prisoners on the 'Fresh Start' programme, those who have been recently bereaved, mothers who have recently given birth and other people in 'stressful' situations. It was suggested by group members that refresher training on dealing with vulnerable customers might be useful for all Jobcentre Plus staff - both those in the contact centres and those in the local offices. There seemed to be an attitude at the moment that the only way claimants could lodge claims was by telephone.

Issues for advice agencies

Where an advocate/adviser contacts a contact centre on behalf of a claimant, they can request a face to face interview. Where advisers experience difficulties persuading the first contact officer that a telephone claim is inappropriate for the client, the next step is to speak to the contact centre manager.

Ken advised that paper claim forms were being withdrawn. However, he accepted the arguments of those present that there needed to be flexibility and paper claims were the most appropriate channel in some circumstances (e.g. where people are hospitalised and cannot cope physically/mentally with making a call or attending an interview. There was general agreement that paper forms were still needed as a contingency. Judith also pointed out that the law still required Jobcentre Plus to accept them. JO Whitfield highlighted that, for her clients, who may have significant support needs because of learning difficulties, they used to be able to deal with a paper claim in one home visit. However, they now have to make at least two visits - one for each phone call - which has a significant resource implication for them.

Consortium members also raised concerns about the time taken to arrange outbound calls from contact centres to collect all the claim details. These should be arranged within 48 hours (even less in certain emergency circumstances), but there were reports of them taking four-six weeks. Ken reported that he was aware of significant delays and it was something Jobcentre Plus was working to address. The problem was a resource issue in that there were not enough staff in certain areas to handle the call backs. He did stress that those who were in emergency situations (e.g. new mothers, people who had split up from partners and had no income etc.) should be offered an emergency call back, which should allow them to be prioritised to the front of the queue. However, group members reported that this was not happening. There were also major problems for clients who tried to access a crisis loan payment to tide them over as they were often not able to get through on the crisis loan helpline either.

It was suggested that refresher training might be useful for contact centre staff on when emergency and interim payments could be issued to claimants. Suzanne offered assurances that the CMS had the facility to take staff through the procedures for doing this -however, it may be something that they were not sufficiently aware of. She noted that staff will be directed to discuss other options with claimants first. They will also need to have made a claim for benefit - and, if they turn up in a Jobcentre Plus office, they will be directed to do this over the telephone in normal circumstances. The options offered to claimants are: firstly, using other funds like savings or money from family; secondly, the quick processing of their claim to get money to them quicker; thirdly, interim payments (note visit to Financial assessor at local office still required); and fourthly - crisis loan payments.

Ken highlighted that 'warm phones' were available at Jobcentre Plus offices for those who did not have access to a phone or had a problem paying for calls. Each office did have one phone that was reserved for claimant use in this manner - but this was not advertised. However, he noted that most of the 'warm phones' were actually meant to be for jobseekers to use so that they can make contact about job vacancies advertised through the job points, rather than for new claims.

The issue of 0845 numbers was also raised. The group wondered why 0800 numbers were not used instead as these would be free to claimants. There was the additional problem of mobile phones, which were likely to charge full rate for both 0845 and 0800 numbers anyway. Abi highlighted that Citizens Advice Scotland's experience was that more and more clients used a pay-as-you-go mobile phone rather than a landline. Because there were no standing charges, a pay-as-you go phone was a very cheap option - but outbound calls were very expensive - around the rate of 30p per minute. Ken and Suzanne agreed to check this issue out and get back to the group.

Ken noted that Jobcentre Plus was about to roll out the next stage of development for the contact centres - the 'virtuality' pilots. At the moment, calls are directed to the appropriate local contact centre and each Jobcentre Plus local office is linked into one call centre on the basis of their region. The idea was that, in the future, all contact centres would be linked in a virtual network which would mean that any incoming call was directed to the next available operator anywhere in the country - who would have the functionality to book call backs from anywhere too. This would tackle some of the resource issues currently being experienced as staffing levels in each contact centre could be monitored each morning and calls directed to where there was the most capacity to deal with them.

Visit to local office
In relation to work-focused interviews - which most claimants still had to attend in their local office before a claim could actually be put into payment - Ken stated that, from 31st October, incapacity benefit claimants would have this deferred for eight weeks. There was currently no requirement for a work-focused interview for those claiming carer's allowance or bereavement benefits. The work-focused interview can also be deferred for vulnerable claimants. This covered those recently bereaved, those whose relationship had broken down, lone parents who have recently given birth, those showing signs of emotional stress, people who were too ill and those who were just about to go into hospital. The interview can be waived for those with a terminal illness or in other extreme circumstances.

The 'Financial Assessor's job was to make the claim 'transferable' - i.e. to ensure that there was sufficient information and documentation that it could be passed to a benefits processor (or, in the future, a Benefits Processing Centre) to put it into payment.

The issue of tax credits was raised, and it was confirmed that the First Contact Officer should handle this. The information would be taken on the telephone and the claim sent to HM Revenue there and then (unless more information was needed) using the DWP's 'e-portal'. The new CMS upgrade would contain a reminder about this.

Ken reported that the new CMS upgrade would be released at the end of October.

Operation in Scotland
One of the driving forces behind the transformation programme for Jobcentre Plus was that processes should be the same all over the UK - with less variation in service on a regional basis. There would also be less reliance on paper memos and other aide memoires to ensure staff were aware of new information, which should also improve the service to the claimant.

In Scotland, there were two contact centres - in Dundee and Motherwell - with a contact centre in Middlesbrough also dealing with some Scottish claims. Areas were allocated to contact centres on a post code basis. But this meant that some local offices could be dealing with some areas which were linked into a contact centre and some which were not - or some which were linked into Motherwell and some which were linked into Dundee or Middlesbrough. The same would be true of area-based advice agencies - which might have some clients under one system and some under another.

Ken also noted that team leaders in contact centres have to monitor a certain number of calls each week to check quality.

For legal reasons, the CMS contains 'mandatory text' which the first contact officer has to read to the claimant (e.g. explaining what 'partner' means). However, the system is designed to be smart about the questions prompted - so for example if someone does not have a partner, they should not be asked questions about them.

Right now, there is no facility for Jobcentre Plus staff to add in additional information about claimants (any information which is not automatically prompted by the system). Additional information is currently written on a bit of paper, which follows the claim from office to office. This is clearly inefficient, so the new upgrade will contain a 'notes' field for the inclusion of any additional information. This will mean that everyone across Jobcentre Plus will have access to this.

Ken suggested that the consortium might want to visit a contact centre. Anne McVey at Jobcentre Plus would be the person to contact about this.

Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising

Previous minutes approved. The Action Point under Incapacity Benefit (to ask DWP whether project had been evaluated) had not been carried forward so is now back on the agenda.

Welfare Reform Green Paper is out in October and group will discuss this prior to submission.

Abigail Bremner had produced a monitoring form about telephone contact centres that will be circulated with the minutes from this meeting.

Information exchange

Latest on tax credits
Judith Patterson indicated that there was new guidance on offsetting and issued a paper.

JO Whitfield had a client with a break in employment for just over one week. The Inland Revenue decided to stop tax credits. She asked for this to be offset.

Action: Does offsetting only apply to a change of household or can it apply to other situations? To be raised with CPAG London office.

Civil Partnership Act comes in in December. It is important to get message across that Inland Revenue consider this to be a change of circumstance and should therefore be reported within three months.

New Tax Credits Team in Liverpool (Graham House) - This is a new contact centre that deals with calls that cannot be resolved. They operate seven days a week. Clients should receive a call within 36 hours. Clients may even want to prompt Inland Revenue helpline to refer them to Graham House.

CPAG have written to the Inland Revenue about overpayments and discretion not to recover. CPAG will be taking this to court.

CPAG are conducting new research on tax credits and clients' experience of overpayments. This is due for publication at the end of November 2005.

CPAG Scotland have received renewed funding for their tax credit project and will be recruiting new staff shortly.

JO Whitfield pointed out that she challenged an overpayment of tax credits of £7000. Although unsuccessful, there was a note at the bottom of the Inland Revenue letter indicating "that if you have other points you can get back to us".

Benefits for Students
Angela Toal described her new project, 'Benefits for Students'. This is a one-year project from June 2005, offering support to those working with students so that students may maximise their income through benefits. She will deliver in-house and outreach training, produce information sheets and run an advice line four days per week. A survey has been conducted amongst further and higher education institutions and they have been asked what help they would like. Advisory group has been set up.

General
JO Whitfield said she had a few cases of GPs not completing DLA statements on claim forms. Judith Paterson indicated that GPs are obliged by NHS contract to do this. Complaints should be made to Medical Services and to DWP.

Action: Judith to check guidance on Internet.

Free School Meals Bill
Consultation is open till 14th October. CPAG have briefing on their website if anyone wants to consult prior to making their own submission.

CPAG have produced a new leaflet, Tax Credits and Childcare. There will be new publications over the next few months. The Civil Partnership Act will be discussed at November meeting Monday 21st November at 1 pm at CAS offices.

Topics for future meetings

• Overpayments in general
• Presentation from Veterans' Agency: new system of payments.

Date of next meeting

The last meeting of the year is as follows:

Monday 21st November, 1pm-3.30pm, CAS offices in Edinburgh.

Back to the Scottish Social Security Consortium main page

For more information contact:
Judith Paterson
Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland,
Unit 9, Ladywell
94 Duke Street,
Glasgow G4 0UW
0141 552 3303
email jpaterson@cpagscotland.org.uk

Abigail Bremner
Citizens Advice Scotland
Spectrum House
2 Powderhall Road
Edinburgh EH7 4GB
0131 550 1000
email bremnera@cas.org.uk