Charity calls for free helplines for vulnerable people
A NORTH East charity which works with homeless people has hit out at councils which charged vulnerable people calling helplines for help.
In September North East Homeless (NEH) raised concerns that people who are struggling wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of calling council helpline sat a time when the charity was forced to halt its outreach programme.
Brian Burridge, the founder of the charity, called on councils to make the helplines free in a bid to ensure those most in need of assistance could get it.
Newcastle City Council and North Tyneside Councils made changes to allow people to call their helplines without a cost.
However, during the second lockdown Gateshead, Durham and Northumberland councils were still operating phone lines which charged callers.
Mr Burridge said South Tyneside Council also lacked a free phone line.
As part of its help, NEH provides pay as you go phones to hundreds of vulnerable people to help them apply for Universal Credit and to ensure they can get the help they need.
Mr Burridge said: “Anyone can ring the number that’s struggling to get help and advice but if you are vulnerable and homeless you’ve got nothing so you can’t afford to phone these numbers to ask for help.
“I’m worried, as I know a lot of people will struggle now without our support and services and I know people who won’t be able to afford to get help via these chargeable helplines.”
Mr Burridge said some council lines were charging callers 40p per minute at a time when the most vulnerable were finding help increasingly difficult to find.
He said: “The councils are asking vulnerable folk to travel into busy city centres in lockdown to access free phones which are only available during specific opening times. What if someone needs help outside of these opening times?
“It’s ridiculous. Not only do we have a problem with homelessness and food poverty in 2020, but councils offer lines for vulnerable people to call for help but can charge them up to 40p per minute. Saying “if they phone us, we will call them back” isn’t any help at all as you need credit to phone them in the first place.
“NEH have even offered to all the councils that we will cover the cost of any freephone numbers so cost is no excuse.”
A spokesman from Gateshead Council said: “We’re looking to implement this as soon as we can. In the meantime, if anyone calls our dedicated number 0191 433 3174 we will call them back or if possible they can email housingadvice@ gatesheadhousing. gov.uk”
Stuart Timmiss, Durham County Council’s head of development and housing, said: “We have looked into the possibility of making our housing advice line an 0800 number but having reviewed how people access our support already and the technical issues which would be posed by such a change, we have informed North East Homeless we will not be doing so at this stage.
“Our advice line will continue to be available free of charge for anyone with a mobile package and for all calls we receive we will continue offer to phone the person back to save them expense.
“We will also continue to issue mobile phones with credit to rough sleepers who access our services to allow them to get in touch with us whenever they need support.”
Phil Soderquest, head of housing and public protection at Northumberland County Council said: “People who are homeless or are at risk of homelessness, have multiple points of access to the council including through our contact centres and our customer service centre which operates a standard landline charge. If we get such a call, a member of our Homelessness and Housing Options Teams will call the person back, so they are not incurring a telephone charge.
A spokeswoman for South Tyneside Council said: “The council is currently investigating the provision of a freephone number for homelessness queries or presentations.
“The service can be contacted free of charge from a public telephone in both South Shields Town Hall and Jarrow Town Hall.”