Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on its review of the numbering policy pertaining to 0345 and 0800 telephone numbers provided for benefit claimants to contact his Department.

The Department’s current policy is that calls to claim benefit by telephone should be free to a customer so it uses 0800 free phone numbers where these calls typically take longer.

The Department uses 0345 telephone numbers where its customers call for other reasons, and these are calls that typically take less time to resolve. 0345 telephone numbers are included in many landline and mobile call minute packages. Where customers do have to pay to access our 0345 services it will never be more than the cost of a local call rate call.

Where possible concerns are raised about call charges to our enquiry line 0345 numbers, we will offer to call a customer back.

The Department is undertaking a review of the way its customers transact with the Department and the numbering policy is included within that. The review is exploring the introduction of alternative contact channels, which would be more cost effective for customers to contact us.