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New figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show that since the beginning of 2003, over 119 million calls to Government helplines and call centres - or 36.6% of all calls - have been abandoned, were met with an engaged tone or went unrecorded by the system. The worst departmental offenders are the Department for Work and Pensions who have missed the most calls at 62 million, and HM Revenue and Customs whose tax credits helpline missed more calls than it answered - 52.7 million missed calls. The individual helplines with the worst records (missed calls as a percentage of total calls) are: 1. Attendance Allowance/Disability Living Allowance - 79.0% of calls abandoned, met with an engaged tone or lost in the system; 2. Work Permits UK - 53.9% 3. Benefit Enquiry Line - 53.9% 4. Tax Credits - 52.7% 5. Rural Payments Agency - 34.3% 6. CSA - 33.7% The real number of calls unanswered since 2003 is likely to be even larger - with many departments unable to provide complete records for the period, discounting calls abandoned before a set period of time, or not recording callers who receive a message advising them to call back later. And the Treasury has yet to provide figures for its other call centres - still holding back on answering a written parliamentary question. Responding to these figures, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, David Laws MP said: "The Government's direct line to the public is failing. Over 119 million phone calls from the public have been missed since 2003 - a colossal waste of people's time and an enormous frustration. Over one in three people calling Government helplines are receiving engaged tones or abandoning calls when they should be able to speak to an adviser. 'Most of the missed calls are to the tax credits hotline and to the benefits department. Because of Labour's reliance on means-testing, more and more people are having to phone in information, or check why their complex awards are going wrong. These calls are overloading the system, which is quite simply breaking down. 'The chaos at the call centres reflects the chaos in Government welfare policy - the reliance on a means-tested muddle of a system for pensions and tax credits. Now we have additional problems with JobCentrePlus call centres and the ongoing crisis at the CSA. 'The Government not only needs to get its helplines working, but it needs to radically simplify the whole welfare system to rely less on the means-testing and complexity which is generating these huge call volumes.' Below is a table summarising the Lib Dems record of departments for 2003 - 2005 (to date) for which figures are available.
Related links to this article: Liberal Democrats Book your seats at the e-Government National Conference 2005 You can now book seats online for the e-Government National Conference 2005, which takes place on the afternoon of Wednesday January 25th at the Savoy in London. This short afternoon conference is an intense investigation of central and local government strategies for 2006-7, and features a free consultancy session from leading partners at KPMG. The evening e-Government National Awards 2005 are now fully sold-out (apart from seats reserved for finalist SROs) and are a celebration of the best teams in UK e-Government – and the 95 finalists are detailed at this link. The Awards are supported by the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers). Platinum sponsor is KPMG, and also sponsoring are Jobsgopublic, Entrust, futurate.com, Guardian Recruitment Solutions, TES Jobs, and O2. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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