HM Treasury written question – answered at on 1 December 2016.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and which public telephone lines operated by HM Revenue and Customs are 0345 lines; how many calls have been made to those lines in the last 12 months for which data is available; what the average duration of calls was to each such line; and how much was charged to all callers using each such line.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publishes some performance data at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-plan-indicators.
The information in respect of the 0345 public telephone lines is as follows:
Number | Number of calls - 12 months to end of June 2016 | Average Duration of Calls mins:secs | |
0345 300 3900 | Tax Credits Helpline | 19,310,874 | Not available |
0345 300 3941 | Tax Credit Childcare Provider | 86,676 | 07:46 |
0345 300 3943 | Tax Credit Agent Line | 123,767 | 05:45 |
0345 300 3944 | Tax Credit - Local Authority | 85,538 | 03:11 |
0345 300 3946 | Tax Credits - Intermediaries | 61,795 | 09:52 |
0345 302 1429 | Tax Credits Payment Line | 1,583,067 | Not available |
0345 366 7820 | Orderline - Bulk Order | 11,308 | 03:07 |
0345 600 4270 | NIN State Pension Top Up | 31,894 | Not available |
Where the information in the table is shown as “Not Available”, this is because customers calling the number are transferred to the correct Department based on the spoken reason for call, rather than the number dialed. Calls cannot be tracked by dialed number through this platform, but can be tracked on some of the simpler helplines. The overall line of business call waiting and handling times is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-plan-indicators
HMRC does not hold information on the cost to customers of calls to its helplines because the cost will vary depending on the call package that a customer has with their telephony provider.
Phone charges are the responsibility of OfCom; full details of costs can be found on their website at http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/phone/how-much-does-a-phone-call-really-cost/
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Ian G
Posted on 6 Mar 2017 3:54 pm (Report this annotation)
The normal cost of a call to a number starting 01, 02 or 03 is ZERO.
The normal way to make calls to geographic numbers starting 01 and 02 and to non-geographic numbers starting 03 is through a (normally monthly) allowance of calls. Such schemes are available on landlines and on mobile phones, even on pay-as-you-go. The call costs are set entirely by the caller's telephone provider and revenue sharing is not permitted. In fact, in using an 03 number, the called party has to pay a small fee to their telephone provider to cover the cost of call-handling and call-forwarding inherent in the use of a non-geographic number. Contract this with premium rate 084 and 087 numbers (which the department stopped using several years ago) where those additional costs were borne by callers through the imposition of an Additional Service Charge with any remainder being available to be paid out as revenue share or to offset the cost of other telephony services contracted by the department's telecoms provider.
Regarding the cost to callers of calling 01, 02 and 03 numbers, a per-minute rate is payable only where the caller exceeds the limits of their inclusive allowance or chose a deal without an inclusive allowance. From landlines, those costs are around 16p to 21p per call plus around 10p to 13p per minute. From mobiles, those costs are around 3p to 55p per minute. It quickly becomes obvious that an hour of calls at these rates far exceeds the cost of taking a deal with unlimited calls. From landlines an "unlimited anytime calls" deal usually costs around £8 per month (plus line rental). BT offers a combined line rental and anytime calls deal (called Home Phone Saver) for £21.99 per month. From mobiles, an "unlimited calls" deal can be had for around £15 to £20 per month on a SIM-only contract or as a pay-as-you-go bundle.
The benefit of such a deal is that it covers all of the caller's calls to family and friends, retailers and traders, banks and insurers, GP, hospital and any other routine day-to-day communications. They can make as many calls as they like without their bill increasing above the package price. Those who are not on one of these deals are likely being ripped off by their phone provider.