8-07-03

One quarter of callers give up on Tax Credit helpline – Barrett

John Barrett, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, has warned that new statistics, showing one quarter of calls made to the tax credit helpline being abandoned, proved the Government's tax credit system had degraded into a “shambles”.

Answers to parliamentary questions, tabled by two Liberal Democrat MPs, showed that almost one quarter of the 9 million calls received by the tax credit helpline between January and May had been 'abandoned'.  Many families have complained that if they are lucky enough to get through to the helpline, they are faced with long delays before their call is handled by an Inland Revenue official.

In a statement, John Barrett said:

"The tax credit helpline should have been a key resource for those who needed help or advice with what has been a complicated application process.  The fact the Inland Revenue have made so many mistakes and caused so many delays only served to make the helpline even more important.

"However, it now appears that one quarter of calls made to the helpline, over 2 million calls in total, were abandoned, most probably because of the length of time individuals were left waiting.

"The tax credit file in my constituency office is now bulging with letters from families who have still not received the money to which they are entitled.  There is also clear evidence that the Inland Revenue continues to make mistakes over peoples' eligibility for the credits on an all too frequent basis.

"The Government must realise that the system has degraded into nothing short of a shambles.  Sorting it out should now be made a top priority.  With over 1 million families having missed the deadline to claim their full Child Tax Credit, the Department for Work & Pensions would also do well to extend the closing date and simplify the application process."

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Answers to parliamentary questions tabled my Liberal Democrat MPs, Steve Webb and Patsy Calton, published today, show the numbers of phone calls received by the tax credit helpline. The information also shows the numbers of calls 'abandoned'.

Mr Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answers of 10 February 2003, Official Report, column 616W, on the tax credit helpline, if he will estimate the number of (a) calls received and (b) calls handled by the helpline in (i) February, (ii) March and (iii) April.

Mrs Calton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average number of calls to the public helpline from those applying for or querying tax credits was each week in the past two months.

Dawn Primarolo: The following table shows the number of calls to the child and working tax credits helpline for Great Britain that were (i) received, (ii) handled and (iii) abandoned in each month since January 2003. These figures are based on a common set of definitions and are the final figures for these.

Calls to the GB child and working tax credit helpline received, handled and abandoned, January to May 2003     

	(i) Received(3)	(ii) Handled(4)	(iii) Abandoned(5)
January 2003	851,851	771,464	80,387
February 2003	1,168,131	956,817	211,314
March 2003	2,486,846	1,701,266	785,580
April 2003	2,509,486	1,767,710	741,776
May 2003	1,999,973	1,679,627	320,346
TOTAL	9,016,287	6,876,884	2,139,403

(3) Where the caller selected an option from the call steering menu and was put in a queue to speak to an adviser.

(4) Where the caller spoke to an adviser.

(5) That is, received but not handled.