I have just ben speaking to a client who told me that the TCO refuses to phone back to her. Her only phone (as is often the case with people on benefits) is a pay as you go mobile. The client said that it costs her £5 to contact the TCO. Anyone tried to take this up or got any tips on taking it up?

Not had this particular problem - yet!

i had one case where the IR accepted responsibility for unacceptable delay and paid £100 compensation, and i had a real human being phone me up to tell me about it! the offer was £100 PLUS expenses for calls and postage, which we didn't take up. i certainly think its worth a try. A fiver to ACCESS a public service intended to eradicate child poverty is seriously bad news for the intended beneficiaries of the scheme, and not a heartening prospect for any users of public services.

i avoid phoning these call centres as much as possible but had to phone the call centre this week, and i believe i felt my blood pressure rise. i gathered from this conversation that all the operators will do is put things on their computer system and talk (rubbish) from a script. i was querying an overpayment invoice, and the only contact number given was the call centre. My request to 'forward' information to the recovery section met a ferocious refusal. The operator assumed i was asking her to phone the relevant section (when it was a broader request to employ whatever magical means of communication they have at their disposal) so I wouldn't be surprised if they haven't had some recent instruction about NOT PHONING ANYBODY, which may have got them confused, she went on to advise me to appeal against the overpayment decision...

i was whimpering by the end of this call...

jj

I've never asked the Helpline to ring back, but to my surprise I have had one call from "Customer Relations". However, when I then asked for the direct line number for the person calling (so as to contact them again because it was obvious that the conversation we were having did not solve the problem) they adamantly refused to give it! I pointed out that this makes it impossible to contact them because the official "Customer Relations" number is always either engaged or rings unanswered for 5 to 10 minutes and then cuts out. This had no effect so any communication from me had to be by fax or in writing - hoping it gets to the right person. (All too often anything we send them is not linked up at all with previous corres., simply gets logged as a separate issue and results in nothing more than a standard acknowledgement.)

How they can call it Customer Relations given the nature of the "service" they give, I don't know!

Sorry - this is rather off the subject - rant over!