How many calls to the Pension Service helpline (a) were not answered, (b) involved the caller being on hold for more than 10 minutes and (c) were terminated by the Pension Service following the caller being on hold for more than 10 minutes in each of the last 12 months.
Response:Part (a)The table below shows the total number of unanswered calls (Calls Abandoned from Agent Queue) for The Pension Service, for each of the last 12 calendar months. Month YearDirectorateCalls Abandoned from Agent QueueFeb-2024Pension Service60,495Mar-2024Pension Service56,400Apr-2024Pension Service72,485May-2024Pension Service36,733Jun-2024Pension Service24,900Jul-2024Pension Service23,709Aug-2024Pension Service25,554Sep-2024Pension Service36,407Oct-2024Pension Service36,412Nov-2024Pension Service31,481Dec-2024Pension Service23,077Jan-2025Pension Service34,704 Part (b) The department does not hold data that enables us to answer this question.Part (c) The department does not hold data that enables us to answer this question. There are many reasons why calls to a service line can attract a high call abandonment rate which can include but is not limited to increased hold times. The abandonment of calls is an area that we are unable to fully analyse as there is no data to tell us exactly why a specific customer terminates a call. We are continuously monitoring the service and reviewing our approach to ensure we are able to deliver for our customers. DISCLAIMER Please note this information is derived from the Department’s management information, designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.