We asked DWP whether some of the long call waiting times, such as for ESA claimants, would have significantly improved by next year. DWP told us that it wanted to reduce waiting times but it was having to deal with a sustained surge in demand for benefits.16 By way of a solution, DWP highlighted that, over the next 18 months, the 880,000 people on income-related ESA would be moving to UC and so would benefit from the modern UC platform and faster call response times experienced by the average UC customer.17 Timeliness of claims processing