119 million calls to Government go unanswered: "Welfare reform chaos highlighted"

10.10.00am GMT Fri 9th Dec 2005

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.

This is an average of 126,270 calls missed a day - or 88 calls a minute.

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 JobCentre Plus 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 record of departments for 2003 - 2005 (to date) for which figures are available.

Department Calls received Calls abandoned or engaged % abandoned or engaged PQ PQ

HMT (Tax Credits) 100,025,000 52,699,000 52.69 12297

DWP* 150,011,156 62,451,106 41.63 24543

DEFRA 3,305,619 350,187 10.59 23305

DOH 212,371 16,641 7.84 23301

Home Office 7,889,624 532,088 6.74 23300

DTI 646,285 43,531 6.74 23304

DCA 734,213 37,220 5.07 23309

DFT 60,663,053 2,911,322 4.80 23295

DFES 1,366,776 30,993 2.27 23303

ODPM 334,223 214 0.06 23297

ODPM 334,223 214 0.06 23297

Total 325,188,320 119,072,302 36.62

• Breakdown for individual DWP helplines given below (PQ Reference 24543 - figures for other individual helplines are included in the original PQ answers).

Helpline Calls received Calls abandoned or engaged % abandoned or engaged

AA/DLA 51,368,370 40,600,932 79.04

Benefit Enquiry Line 5,994,452 3,231,401 53.91

CSA 14,839,407 4,994,353 33.66

First Contact 7,341,380 1,964,104 26.75

Pensions Centres 27,884,067 6,899,643 24.74

Jobseeker Direct 23,516,155 3,560,238 15.14

Pensions Direct 3,002,463 438,027 14.59

Pensions Credit 5,793,160 383,065 6.61

Other 10,261,702 379,343 3.70

Total 150,001,156 62,451,106 41.63

We are still waiting for full responses from HM Treasury and MOD. Departments not listed to do not operate call centres, i.e. DFID, DCMS, FCO, Scotland/Wales/NI.