Local MP Mark Oaten has today welcomed the confirmation he has obtained from HM Treasury that more staff will be allocated to handle large volumes of calls in the Child Benefit helpline and other measures also adopted to help improve the service.
Following a number of complaints from constituents that they could not get through to an operator despite trying numerous times Mark Oaten took the issue to Parliament.
In response to his Parliamentary Question Labour MP Stephen Timms admitted that almost a third of callers were played a voice recording informing them the line was too busy.
It was then confirmed that new plans would be brought in to help deal with this problem including an extra 50 advisers to the helpline by the end of the year. Other measures include improving links between contact centres and the child benefit processing office and access to basic information from an improved automated service.
Mark Oaten MP stated:
“I’ve spoken to people who have tried all hours of the day to speak to someone just to hear the ‘we are currently very busy please try back later’ message before being cut off. I tried it myself and got the same message every time.
“So I am glad that the Government has taken notice of my concerns. This is a vital public service for thousands of people and I welcome the acknowledgement that something’s wrong and the need to address it. Now we need to ensure this actually makes a difference.
- PQ answered on the 22nd of October 2008.
Child Benefit
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 6 October 2008, on child benefit, what percentage of callers to the child benefit helpline were automatically informed to call later by answer message because the lines were too busy in 2007-08. [226660]
Mr. Timms [holding answer 13 October 2008]: During 2007-08, the busy message was played to 29 per cent. of call attempts to the child benefit helpline.
Service levels on the child benefit helpline have been affected over the last 12 months by a variety of different factors. These include increased customer demand and longer call handling times following the introduction of enhanced security arrangements after HMRC’s data loss in 2007. When the number of callers is high, as it has been on the child benefit helpline, calls are more likely to go unanswered with a higher number of busy messages played. Customers who cannot get through on their first attempt often use the rapid redial facility on their telephone to make numerous successive calls and this rapidly increases the number of unanswered calls and busy messages.
HMRC’s latest contact centre customer survey, covering March to August 2008, shows that over 91 per cent. of callers were satisfied with the service they received from the child benefit helpline. The Department has, however, developed plans to further improve the service provided on the helpline.
These plans include allocation of an extra 50 advisers to the helpline by the end of the year; improving links between contact centres and the child benefit processing office to provide a better customer service; providing a set of automated messages on the helpline to enable callers to get basic relevant information about child benefit without needing to wait for or talk to an adviser and directing customers to the newly improved child benefit content on the HMRC website, which includes an improved payment date tracker. These measures will reduce the number of busy messages played to customers and enable more customers to speak to an adviser more quickly, should they need to.
Mark Oaten