The cost to all of us, everytime someone gets on the phone to raise a concern or request information from a public sector body is huge. This relates to all agencies, irrespective of the name on the door of the organisation. The cost of employing staff to answer the phone and ensuring that wherever possible they can deal with the difficult as well as simple queries depends on a huge investment in training and infrastructure so that the call is recorded in such a way that our personal  information is not compromised but if we are challenged later, that the agency can check its records and find evidence of the call. Of course businesses and charities are sometimes placed in a similar position, but if we ring a plumber or builder and there is no one available to answer the phone, the probability is the person concerned is working, up a ladder or in a location where to respond will not be helpful to the client they are currently employed by. We don’t expect that to be the case for instance if we call 999 or pick up the phone to contact a Government Department, we expect them to have someone on the end of the line in some cases 24 hours a day. A number of years ago Sussex Police changed the recorded message that one hears if you dial 101, so that now the first voice you hear is Giles York, the Chief Constable explaining that if the caller has access to the internet, that using the Sussex Police website to make the enquiry will save the caller time and help the police to respond in an effective manner. However even though this call costs a great deal to be answered, a sum that we have to pay for, there is no suggestion that the caller is expected to pay more than the usual cost of a phone call for this non emergency call. The same is true of emergency calls where there is no delay while Giles explains his rationale for placing internet based systems above those on the phone. Indeed when it comes to emergencies there is no suggestion that the internet is a better place to go. After all the idea that reporting a crime or ensuring that someone in distress is helped as quickly as possible is not something that should be deterred by a minute by minute charge on our phone bill. The same is true if you or I ever pick up our phones to speak to the office of our MP or our Council. Charging a premium rate for phones calls is certainly not new, many companies charge for the time we spend on the phone, and in the case of certain businesses, this is the only form of income they collect. However the Government has other ways of collecting money to pay for such services and as the Coalition Lib Dem Consumer Minister Jo Swinson MP made clear on 13^th December 2013, “The government believes it is inappropriate for callers to pay high call charges for accessing vital public services and the Cabinet Office will be publishing guidance for departments’ use of number prefixes shortly.”  

She went on to say “It really is unfair that consumers are being stung in this way” In the light of this it is hard to understand why as has been widely reported in the last week, the government has failed to respond to its own policy and is using a premium rate number for people calling the Universal Credit helpline. As a result of this some providers are charging their customers as much as 55p a minute to deal with a matter that only impacts the poorest people in our society. Placing this burden on people who by their very definition are facing enormous economic hardship is an appalling decision to make and those responsible for this decision should be held to account. As someone on twitter pointed out, the decision to charge for the Universal Credit help line but not for the benefit fraud helpline indicates just how warped the thinking of this Government is.

Whilst all residents in Sussex are able to raise such concerns with their local MP, perhaps the fact that Huw Merriman who is MP for Bexhill and Battle is also a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Department of Work and Pensions means that he would be a useful person for local residents to contact if they feel that such a policy needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. It is the DWP that is responsible for this helpline and they are best placed to get it changed it to a non premium number.