Karen Buck – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karen Buck on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will request from Maximus a report on (a) the number of employment support allowance claimants in the City of Westminster who have been sent a letter mandating them to attend a Work Programme interview that includes incorrect email contact details and (b) the steps taken since that error was identified to ensure that it is remedied.

Priti Patel

Of the overall total number of Initial Appointment letters sent out during the period 16/10/2013 – 19/08/2015 there are 169 customers with a Westminster postcode that could have had these letters sent to them with the incorrect Maximus e-mail address.

Maximus have confirmed that the letter in question was originally created on 16/10/2013 for customers referred from City of Westminster. Customers affected will be those referred to Work Programme who have a Westminster postcode only.

Maximus became aware of this letter containing an error via a customer complaint on 18/08/2015 and had resolved the issue by 19/08/2015 there is therefore no need to publish a report. Maximus has also set up an email address so that any customer responses sent to the incorrect address will be forwarded to the correct email address from 19/08/2015. Maximus are confident that they have remedied this unfortunate mistake.