Case study

Department for Work and Pensions

Establishing a customer service centre in record time through outsourcing

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for payment of social security benefits and pensions throughout the UK. Until recently around 13 million customers received these payments via order books and girocheques, cashable at the Post Office®, with the remaining 10 million being paid electronically via their bank or building society accounts. The paper-based payments cost over 50 times as much as their electronic equivalents to transact.

Clearly, if all customers could be paid electronically, enormous savings would accrue. The move would also eliminate counterfeiting and other abuse associated with paper-based transactions. Therefore, in early 2000, the DWP launched the Payment Modernisation Programme (PMP) to make this change happen. The DWP faced the difficult task of contacting these 13 million customers - ranging from pensioners to the unemployed - to invite them to change their current method of payment.

Bringing together specialists in programme delivery, strategy, outsourcing,IT, modelling and contact centre design, PA was engaged to help the DWP develop its conversion strategy and supporting business processes. The DWP saw the best way to achieve conversion was through outsourcing a customer contact centre (CCC).

The implementation of the CCC was achieved in record timescales: PA managed the procurement, publishing tender documents in February 2002, and the CCC was up and running by October 2002.