Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if the Government will implement the recommendations of the report of July 2016 from the Social Security Advisory Committee on introducing freephone numbers for the personal independent payment enquiry line.

The Department’s current telephony numbering policy is that calls to claim benefit should be free, so it uses 0800 telephone numbers for these calls. The Department uses 0345 telephone numbers where customers call for other reasons. These are, typically, calls which take less time to resolve. If a customer raises concern over the cost of the call then we will offer to call them back.

At the moment, extending 0800 telephone numbers to other lines, including the Personal Independent Payment enquiry line, would be expensive.

That being said, DWP recognises that our numbering policy has been in place for some time and will be conducting a review. The Department will also be considering alternative contact channels for customers to transact with us.