Why are the Government making people pay a Telephone Tax?

Britons make millions of calls every year to the government. From benefits and tax credits to driving licences, government departments and their agencies provide services that many people, particularly the poorest, have to use.

However, my research has revealed that two thirds of government department and agencies use high-cost phone lines. Many are 0845 numbers costing callers up to 41p per minute. Some are premium rate 09 numbers, which can cost over £2.50 per minute.

It’s a telephone tax – and it hits people who rely on government services hardest.

Now the National Audit Office (NAO) have agreed to look into the practice across government. They want to know why the government is choosing these rip-off rate numbers instead of geographic rate or free-phone numbers, and how they are benefiting. I’ve been campaigning against the use of 0844 and 0845 by GPs and government departments, especially the Department for Work and Pensions, for the last year-and-a-half.

Last month I provided the NAO with a dossier of evidence gleaned from Parliamentary Questions and Freedom of Information requests, and called on them to investigate. This is a widespread practice – and the new helplines being set up are 0845 too.

The government has shown no understanding of how unfair this practice is. Not in the adjournment debate I secured in November last year or in response to the numerous letters I’ve written.  They haven’t got a clue about the problems they create for people on low incomes, by charging so much for calls they have no choice but to make.

Phone lines for Disability Living Allowance, Carers Allowance, jobcentres, the Social Fund and Pensions Service are all 0845.

The government are cutting back on face-to-face services and forcing people onto the phone, to get information and help, change details and make claims. But they are charging rip-off rates and landing people with big bills they can’t afford. We already make millions of calls to government departments and things are set to get worse. Upheaval and turmoil in the benefits system will bring an explosion of inquiries and problems.

These callers, many of them elderly, vulnerable, sick and on the lowest incomes, are subsidising the government’s phone bills to the tune of millions of pounds and phone companies are making a fortune.

The Department for Transport has made £2.5m out of high cost calls in the last three years. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has pocketed £10,000. Other departments say they don’t make money from 084 calls directly but there is evidence to suggest they have had their phone bills cut or received additional, free services worth millions of pounds. Cable & Wireless has given HM Revenue & Customs extra services worth nearly £5m. Iain Duncan Smith has confirmed to me that BT has cut the cost to DWP of outbound calls. Phone companies are making a fortune too. Cable & Wireless makes £1m from its HMRC 0845 numbers.

After the probe into their phone lines by Public Accounts Committee, HMRC have pledged to switch all their phone lines to 03 this summer. They estimate it will save their customers £13m a year.

So it is possible, and there are strong arguments for using alternatives. It is time the Department for Work and Pensions and others followed suit.

John Healey is the MP for Wentworth & Dearne. His eight page report, ‘The Telephone Tax’ can be downloaded here.