Performance of the Carer's Allowance Unit (CAU), 2011 to 2012
How well the CAU met national targets for clearance of claims, satisfaction rates, complaints and compliments.
Details
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.
| Carer’s Allowance | Target for 2011/12 | Achieved in 2011/12 |
|---|---|---|
| Average time we had a claim before we made a decision | 2.3 weeks | 1.9 weeks |
| Paying the right money | 99% | 99.5% |
Call quality monitoring
We ask for feedback on 50 calls each quarter. After consulting Carer’s Allowance customers we increased the target satisfaction rate from 75% to 90%.
Carer’s Allowance call quality monitoring (2011 to 2012)
| Satisfaction rate achieved | Target |
|---|---|
| 99% | 90% |
Complaints
If a customer complains because they are not satisfied with our service, our target for replying to the complaint is 7 working days.
For the period from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012 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 January 2009)
On the 31 March 2012 there were 599,453 customers in receipt of Carer’s Allowance.
| Complaints received | Answered within target |
|---|---|
| 718 | 699 |
The top complaints in the CAU from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012 were:
- Failed to keep customer informed
- Benefit payment delays
- Claim processing delays
To address these issues we have:
- concentrated on the Continuous Improvement process to identify better ways of working
- introduced a new notification to advise customers of changes to their payments
- tried new ways of working that are now helping us deal with complex claims more quickly
- made improvements to some of our forms to improve efficiency and customer service
Compliments
When a customer is happy with our service they sometimes let us know.
The Carer’s Allowance Unit received 120 compliments between 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012.
About the CAU
The Carer’s Allowance Unit has centres around the UK and administers the assessments and payments for carers.
Updates to this page
Published 31 March 2013Last updated 13 June 2013 + show all updates
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Linked to a document series - Carer's Allowance Unit performance
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First published.