Carer's Allowance
The Carer’s Allowance Unit undertakes outreach activity with both local and national organisations and through Disability and Carers Service corporate events. The aim is to raise awareness of Carer's Allowance and build links with both local and national organisations. We are particularly keen to work with organisations to reach the many “hidden carers”.
Events
Future events will be published when arranged.
| Date | Location | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
07/11/08 |
Parkinson’s Disease Society |
Advice and information day for people with Parkinson’s Disease and their carers |
Information stand. 10.00 am – 1.00 pm |
08/11/08 |
Parkinson’s Disease Society |
Advice and information day for younger people with Parkinson’s Disease and their carers |
Information stand. 10.00 am – 2.00 pm |
11/11/08 |
Mental Health Today exhibition |
Exhibition with information for disabled people, carers and support organisations |
Information stand. 9.30 am – 4.15 pm |
15/11/08 |
Parkinson’s Disease Society |
Advice and information day for younger people with Parkinson’s Disease and their carers |
Information stand. 10.00am – 4.00pm |
20/11/08 |
“Kidz Up North” event |
Annual exhibition for disabled children, parents, carers and support organisations. |
Information stand. 9.30 am – 5.00 pm |
27/11/08 |
Learning Disability Today Exhibition |
Exhibition with information for disabled people, carers and support organisations |
Information stand. 09.30 am – 6.00pm |
29/11/08 |
Parkinson’s Disease Society |
Carers Information and Support Day |
Information stand and talk. 10.00 am – 4.00 pm |
Outreach update
October was a busy month with events taking place in Lincolnshire, Greater Manchester, London, Hampshire, Shropshire and the North East. Following a presentation on Carers Allowance at the Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Annual Regional Conference in Radcliffe near Manchester, I was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation in acknowledgement of my time given to attend the event. November is again looking like a busy month building up to Carer’s Rights Day which takes place on Friday 5 December.
For more details about outreach events, please contact Phill Cottam on 01772 899 556.
News
Our second ‘Open Day’ took place on 10 September 2008. The event was attended by 12 representatives of carers centres affiliated to the Princess Royal Trust for Carers from Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Lincolnshire, advisors from the Money Advice Unit in Hertfordshire and Carers UK and the North West Regional Manager for Parkinson’s disease.
The purpose of the Open Day was to give those attending a better understanding of working practices within the Unit to improve our customer service together with an overview of some of the ongoing initiatives such as CASPER, Exportability of Carer’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance. There was also an opportunity for them to visit the Contact Centre to see how calls from customers are received and dealt with, which included listening in to calls and talking to staff.
The day was supported by Joy Dunne, the Unit Manager, together with senior managers Anne Broom and Denis Gilfoyle, and members of the CAU LEAN team, Business Change and the Customer Focus Group.
Those attending gave very positive verbal feedback throughout the day and expressed how interesting and informative they had found it. They also said that they were impressed with how the Unit continues to improve the service we provide to our customers and felt they had a greater appreciation of how the work is processed.
Performance information
Claim clearance
The National Audit Office has agreed national targets for the clearance of claims for Carer's Allowance (CA) and the accuracy of our payments. The table shows how the Carer's Allowance Unit (CAU) performed last year and how we are performing so far this year - 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007.
| Carer's Allowance | Achieved last year | Target for this year | Achieved so far this year (end of March 2008) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average clearance time (working days) | 10.5 | 13.5 | 12.4 |
| Paying the right money | 99.3% | 98% | 98.9% |
Complaints
If a customer complains because they are not satisfied with our service, our target for replying to the complaint is seven working days.
For the period from 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007 the table shows:
- the number of complaints we received
- the number answered within the agreed time. This may include answers to complaints received before 1 April 2007.
On the 31 March 2007 there were 465,000 customers in receipt of Carer’s Allowance.
| National | Local | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Complaints received | Answered within target | Complaints received | Answered within target |
| 3701 | 3467 | 261 | 251 |
The top complaints in the Carer’s Allowance Unit last year were:
- Letters or forms which caused upset or offence – 50 complaints
- Staff attitude – 38 complaints
- Delays in dealing with a claim – 35 complaints
To address these issues we have:
- changed the wording of our bereavement letter
- given customer service training to all our Contact Centre staff. The satisfaction rate for politeness of staff in the last survey was 89 per cent
- reviewed all internal letters
- asked staff to phone customers with updates on progress where delay is unavoidable and to explain complex decisions.
Compliments
When a customer is happy with our service they sometimes let us know.
The Carer’s Allowance Unit received 116 compliments last year.
Comments
To comment on the information provided on this page, please email: external.communications@dwp.gsi.gov.uk