Benefits helplines charges ‘local rate’
AMINISTER has told east Runcorn MP Mike Amesbury that benefits telephone helplines are not charged at premium rates.
Alok Sharma, work and pensions minister, are 0345 numbers and are charged at local rate.
Mr Amesbury, Labour, Weaver Vale, had quizzed work and pensions secretary Esther McVey on various aspects of the phonelines: how many times they had been referred to in Department For Work And Pensions (DWP) letters to welfare claimants, how many callers had used the lines, what steps were being taken to make sure premium rates were excluded from Universal Credit helplines, and ‘what assessment she has made of cost to her department of the contin- ued use of a premium rate number to play a recorded message to callers diverting them elsewhere’. ●
However, Mr Sharma denied benefits recipients were being fleeced.
He said the DWP had updated its numbers and has now embarked on an exercise to make sure clients used the right phone numbers to avoid being charged excessively.
Freephone options have also been introduced, he said.
Mr Sharma said: “The Universal Credit telephone numbers previously used by the department were not premium rate numbers and it is misleading to refer to them in this way.
“The 0345 numbers that were in use were charged at local rate and are included in the call packages of most mobile and landline phone deals.
“Any customer who raised a concern about the costs of calling the department was offered a call back.
“We have no evidence that people did not call because they believed the service was a premium rate number.”