Financial Cost Of Contacting Government

EDM number 1576 in 2008-09, proposed by John Battle on 02/06/2009.
Categorised under the topics of Benefits administration and Telecommunications.

That this House notes with concern the high cost of calls to Government helplines from mobile telephones; recognises that many people only have access to a mobile telephone and do not have a landline and therefore have no choice but to pay these high call costs; further notes the recent Citizens Advice Bureau report, Hung Up, which provided evidence from 65 citizens advice bureaux that many vulnerable and destitute people are unable to claim a crisis loan because of the expense of calling the Government freephone claim line on a mobile telephone; recognises that it is possible to make freephone numbers free to call from a mobile telephone, for example by registering the numbers with the Telephone Helplines Association; and calls on the Government urgently to ensure that its benefit claim lines, and in particular its crisis loans claim line, are made free to call from a mobile telephone.

This motion has been signed by a total of 83 MPs.