In doing so, Jobcentre Plus has created "Europe's largest single virtual telephone network", according to its 2008-09 annual report. It also introduced a single national telephone number for new benefit claims so that calls from the public can be directed to the next available member of staff, regardless of location.
Jobcentre Plus reported that 6,500 of its contact centre staff are now handling 18m calls from the public each year. An integrated telephone network was implemented during the last year, with improved messaging and call routing, the document says.
According to a parliamentary written answer published on 12 June, the agency was called 1.64m times in March this year, although it failed to answer 5.6% of those calls, and took an average of 77 seconds to pick up those that got through. However, the number of calls had risen 21% from March 2008.
The agency's annual report also records that it took part in pilots of the government's Tell us Once scheme. The cross-government project, led by the Department for Work and Pensions, aims to cut bureaucracy by improving the way people can tell local and central government about changes to their circumstances, beginning with notifications of births and deaths.
JobcentrePlus' IT costs in 2008-09 were around £132m, according to the report, compared with £122m the previous year. No serious data breaches were reported to the Information Commissioner's Office.
