{"id":72586,"date":"2016-07-21T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=7434027f0ab9f6733c72b3b22b27ec7d"},"modified":"2016-07-21T10:00:36","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T10:00:36","slug":"press-release-telephony-in-dwp-and-hmrc-an-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=72586","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Telephony in DWP and HMRC: an update"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Social Security Advisory Committee today published its report Telephony in DWP<\/abbr> and HMRC<\/abbr>: an update<\/a>. This report was inspired by the challenge set for us \u2013 in the 2015 triennial review of SSAC<\/abbr><\/a> \u2013 to review the impact of our reports produced as part of the committee\u2019s independent work programme. This report therefore considers the progress made by DWP<\/abbr> and HMRC<\/abbr> following earlier SSAC<\/abbr> reports (in 2007 and 2009) on the costs and practices relating to telephony in both departments.<\/p>\n

Announcing the publication of this report, Paul Gray (the committee\u2019s Chair) commented:<\/p>\n

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During the period since our earlier reports there have been major developments in the customer channel strategy for both departments as they seek to move increasingly towards a \u201cdigital by default\u201d environment. But efficient and low-cost telephony is still a vital need for many customers, especially the more vulnerable, and is likely to be for some time to come, even if on a declining scale.<\/p>\n

Equally, the fundamental changes to the welfare reform agenda the departments are delivering in this decade and beyond highlight still further the critical importance of customers having ease of contact to report changes of circumstance and other important information to update their award position.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The report acknowledges that both DWP<\/abbr> and HMRC<\/abbr> are preparing for a digital future which will fundamentally change the way they interact with customers through the increased availability of support available via web-chat, journals, texting, smart phones and so on.<\/p>\n

But we conclude that, for the time being at least, telephony continues to be an important medium for communication between claimants and government departments and that, while some progress to address concerns raised in our 2009 report have been made, some important issues remain on which we would like the departments to reflect further.<\/p>\n

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Read the committee\u2019s earlier reports on telephony:<\/p>\n