DWP to make huge change to services in bid to make benefits system 'simpler'
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has shared plans to update its systems to help its most vulnerable. According to a report by Public Technology, the benefits department plans to introduce "more automation" to its telephone services and boost its digital and in-person support. The department's increased use of automation aims to help it "identify and provide improved support" to its most vulnerable service users.
The DWP's permanent secretary, Sir Peter Schofield, says one of the primary ways of doing this would be to introduce a “conversational platform” which hopes to improve the allocation of calls to DWP helplines. In a letter to MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Schofield said that the system “will modernise DWP’s telephony services using voice-led technology that can assimilate what a caller is telling us, routing their call to the team best-placed to support them”.
Sir Peter Schofield said the service was already "performing well" in areas where it is deployed, added: "And we plan to roll it out across more of our telephony lines in the coming months.”. Alongside the changes to the telephone services, he also noted that the department was "seeking to simplify access to other services” through better use of tech. This includes things such as converting customers' inbound calls into text, which he claims can help in “identifying serious harm risks.”.
The department chief also pointed to the use of AI to process the 25,000 pieces of correspondence received by the DWP each day. He added: "Artificial intelligence technology [can] allow us to digitally identify whether a customer may need support from what they have written and how they have written it.".
