Benefits system slammed

Jobcentre Plus customer management system causes widespread problems

Benefits claims backlogs created by the Jobcentre Plus customer management system (CMS2) are causing problems for some of society's most vulnerable members.

More than 75 per cent of calls into Sheffield's benefits call centre were not answered in July, according to figures seen by Computing. And some cash-strapped claimants are waiting weeks for their money.

An open letter to Work and Pensions secretary David Blunkett from local organisations including the Sheffield Law Centre and the Mental Health Citizens' Advice Bureau claims a number of problems, including:

• delays of up to four weeks before the first payment is made
• confusion and frustration among claimants
• people forced to request interim payments because their claim is not processed
• huge arrears of work and increasing sickness absence among members of staff.

The difficulties with CMS2 are being caused by problems with the technology itself and the design of the process change involved in sending new claims through call centres rather than via paper forms at local Jobcentre Plus offices.

The issues are not unique to Sheffield. Last month Computing highlighted a doubling of crisis loan applications as a result of CMS2 delays in an East coast region (Computing, 11 August).

And in Leicester a welfare rights liaison meeting with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) raised issues including unacceptable delays, staff having problems using CMS2, and inflexibility in the design of the computer system.

Rollout of CMS2 in Leicester was halted earlier in the summer because of the problems, but has subsequently restarted.

'The system is working better now because the old clerical process is running alongside it, so if there is a problem they can just do it clerically,' said Darren Moore, at the Leicester Association of Welfare Rights Advisors.

The people worst affected are society's most vulnerable members, say sources. The call centre-based system assumes claimants can make and receive lengthy phone calls unassisted, which is often not the case for those with mental health problems, for example.

'DWP has only thought about able claimants, who are work-ready now. Anybody else, in vulnerable groups, hasn't been taken into account,' said one local authority welfare officer.