22 March 2024
Don Thompson
[FYI request #25918 email]
Tēnā koe Don Thompson
Official Information Act request
Thank you for your email of 28 February 2024, requesting data and information
regarding calls to Ministry contact centres. I have considered your request under
the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act). Please find my decision on your request
set out below. For the sake of clarity, I will respond to your request in parts.
1) Please advise how many calls to the Work and Income Call Centre 0800 number
(0800 559 009) have been presented with the above message in the twelve
months from 1 February 2023 to 31 January 2024, broken down into monthly
numbers, divided into specific phone queues, for all queues that use this system
(e.g. General enquiry queue, hardship assistance queue).
The Ministry is unable to provide the number of calls that are presented and played
a message to callers stating that the Contact Centre is busy and unable to answer
the call, as this data is not collected in any of our technology systems. As such,
this aspect of your request is refused under section 18(e) of the Act, under the
basis that this information does not exist.
2) Please advise how many successful calls have been made to Customer Service
Representatives in all of these queues during this time period, broken down by
month and phone queue, or provide some other way of advising what
proportion of total calls to the call centres the answer to question 1 comprises.
3) Please advise the average time a caller has had to wait in your phone queues
to get through, broken down by month and phone queue, for the same time
period as above. Please distinguish between calls where an automated call-
back is utilised, and where it is not.
Your request for information regarding a ‘phone queue’ has been interpreted to
mean the 0800 559 009 line.
The Aurora Centre, 56 The Terrace, PO Box 1556, Wellington
– Telephone 04-916 3300 – Facsimile 04-918 0099
Please find
Table One below in response to these two aspects of your request.
Table One: Number of calls received, number of calls answered, and average
time taken to answer at the Ministry’s Contact Centre, broken down by month,
from 1 February 2023 to 31 January 2024.
Month
Calls Offered
Calls Answered Average time to
Answer
February 2023
429,873
312,026
18:15
March 2023
332,551
258,690
13:40
April 2023
256,327
199,186
13:30
May 2023
321,734
255,973
11:07
June 2023
284,189
225,530
11:13
July 2023
266,793
212,330
12:13
August 2023
295,831
237,514
11:19
September 2023
290,437
220,613
13:56
October 2023
269,573
218,046
11:31
November 2023
261,153
212,070
11:55
December 2023
249,358
205,549
10:47
January 2024
289,730
239,032
10:38
4) Please provide any policy that explains the reasoning for why a client is
presented with instructions to 'Call Work and Income' when they are attempting
to apply for assistance online, I.e. In what circumstances are they able to apply
for assistance online, and in what circumstances are they required to call the
call centre?
This aspect of your request is refused under section 18(e) of the Act, as this
information does not exist.
The Ministry does not have any policy to restrict clients applying for assistance to
specific forms of communication (such as over the phone, or online). However, the
Ministry acknowledges that many online offerings are currently inactive following
COVID-19 and technical/resource limitations.
Please find a copy of our internal ‘doogle’ guidelines on what can be done via the
Ministry’s online service ‘MyMSD’ attached
as
Appendix A. 5) Please provide a breakdown of how applications for Work and Income
assistance were received (phone contact, online application or in person at an
office) for the same time period, broken down by request type e.g. benefit
application, food grant, special needs grant etc.
The Ministry does not record the manner in which applications are received. As
such, this aspect of your request is refused under section 18(e) of the Act, as this
information does not exist.
The Ministry aims to answer all calls to our 0800 services as quickly as possible.
We are experiencing more demand across all of the Ministry’s Contact Centres.
We continue to work on how we can improve these services to ensure we are
meeting the needs of New Zealanders as and when they need to contact us.
I will be publishing this decision letter, with your personal details deleted, on the
Ministry’s website in due course.
If you wish to discuss this response with us, please feel free to contact
[MSD request email]. If you are not satisfied with my decision on your request relating to data and
information regarding calls to Ministry contact centres, you have the right to seek
an investigation and review by the Ombudsman. Information about how to make
a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi nui
p.p.
Magnus O’Neill
General Manager
Ministerial and Executive Services
