Rip-off Government helplines cost callers £56 million a year

The Government is charging us millions to call its helplines each year. Here's how you can avoid the charges.

We spent a total of £56 million calling up expensive Government helplines last year, an investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed.

These phone calls - to numbers which often began 0845 - took up 880 million minutes, of which 402 million minutes were spent on hold.

But if these phone numbers all became geographical, so they began with 03, it would save the public £29 million each year.

Expensive 0845 numbers

Calling a phone number starting with 0845 is expensive. But many Government departments leave us little choice, particularly if we’re looking for specific advice.

Asking questions, claiming benefits or paying for services are all common reasons people need to call these lines. But in return for dialling a more expensive number, we are not getting a better service, the NAO claims.

In fact it predicts that the amount of time people spend on hold is equitable to £100 million wasted per year.

There are around 365 customer telephone numbers on central Government websites, with 33% of these still using pricey 084 numbers.

Vulnerable people

People on low incomes are the hit hardest by these charges as they are more likely to use pay-as-you-go mobile phones, which charge even more to make these calls.

Across all Government numbers, 59 serve vulnerable and low-income people and still use the higher-rate phone lines, such as the Redundancy Payments Service Helpline.

There are some systems in place to help those on lower income numbers. And 86% of higher-rate phone numbers do offer services such as call-backs to minimise costs for the caller. But the practice here is inconsistent; in less than half of calls people are told about the call-back service.

Telephone costs

How a phone number starts will directly affect how much it costs a caller, as can be seen from the table below.

How to avoid paying for 0845 numbers

Calling a Government helpline may be unavoidable but there are several ways to avoid paying for it.

Switching to a different telephone package, or using a landline instead of a mobile phone, is one option but this isn’t going to be instant.

Using a website such as saynoto0870.com is a quick way to find a cheaper alternative number. It lists 0845 and 0870 numbers with cheaper 01/02 and 03 versions. It’s also possible to search online the company in question and find another phone number – such as a sales desk – and ask them to transfer you.

You can find out more in our article - Say no to 0845 and 0870 numbers: how to call them for free.

Do you think it's fair the Government charges for its helpline numbers? Should it be forced to make these phone numbers free? Let me know in the comment box below.

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