"iain Duncan Smith’s department has raked in nearly £120,000 from calls to Government helplines.

Pensioners and redundant workers are among people forced to pay the rip-off phone charges."

Full story here
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/iain-duncan-smiths-department-rakes-4263653

See below to see a couple of the culprits.

https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-payments-helpline

https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre

Dispite having officially switched to 0345 numbers, I did receive a letter from teh DWP quoting the same 0845 Number that had previously been on the website.

Ensure that you try the 03 equivilant before rining an 08 number as the 03 virsion should not attaract a service charge and may well be within your inclusive allowance.

DWP started switching the matching 0345 numbers on in March 2014 and then ran both 0345 and 0845 in parallel for the next year or more.

For the last few months, if you call an old DWP 0845 number an announcement tells you to re-dial the new 0345 number. The 0845 announcement isn't charged.

Calls to 03 numbers are either 'inclusive', else charged at geographic rate. These calls are never 'free'.

tony8 wrote on Aug 24^th, 2015 at 5:53pm:

Dispite having officially switched to 0345 numbers, I did receive a letter from teh DWP quoting the same 0845 Number that had previously been on the website. Ensure that you try the 03 equivilant before rining an 08 number as the 03 virsion should not attaract a service charge and may well be within your inclusive allowance.

Whoever set that 0345 website up is being very misleading!  Calls are not "Free" they are Inclusive, there is a vast difference in terminology.

I was recently in contact with Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile in regard to 03 numbers and they are stating that some 03 nubers are FREE and also the 0300 number differ from 0345 numbers, we all know that this is incorrect information.

Companies should be reprimanded for such poor training in regard to informing staff of call charges.

You appear to put more weight on what a call-centre operative tells you than what can be found in their official published tariff information.

Likewise, you consider a refund fixes the problem, without finding out what the actual problem was and whether the billing system has been fixed.

It will be interesting to see what happens next month...

No! I do not consider it correct for VM not to rectify the problem and I do not put more weight on the fact that I have received a refund. I will have you know that I have spent many an hour contacting MPs, organizations and companies over the years so I do not take kindly to your implication.

It is a small victory that I have managed to receive a refund and I would have applied the same vigor if I was assisting a follow member.

CJT-80 wrote on Aug 25^th, 2015 at 9:19am:

tony8 wrote on Aug 24th, 2015 at 5:53pm: Dispite having officially switched to 0345 numbers, I did receive a letter from teh DWP quoting the same 0845 Number that had previously been on the website. Ensure that you try the 03 equivilant before rining an 08 number as the 03 virsion should not attaract a service charge and may well be within your inclusive allowance. Whoever set that 0345 website up is being very misleading!  Calls are not "Free" they are Inclusive, there is a vast difference in terminology.

It is full of duff info and the link has now been removed i see. :)

Yes the 0345 site is stating wrong information and also they do not state connection charges which I imagine the true cost is the connection charge plus the call per minute so as stated the  charges on the site are incorrect in my opinion

Most people will never pay a per-minute rate for calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers as the call will be inclusive in their allowance on their landline or on their mobile. This is the most common way to make calls to these numbers.

The site has a few errors in explaining how things work, and could do with some re-wording. The assertion that 03 calls are "free" is the most worrying. From landlines and from mobiles, these calls are "inclusive" else "geographic rate". They are never "free".

There are a few incorrect dates. Migration from 084 and 087 to 034 or 037 has been available since 2007. DWP activated 0345 numbers in March 2014 following CO guidance published December 2013. BIS's CCR 2013 came into effect for retailers, traders and passenger transport companies on 13 June 2014. Ofcom's CCRfE came into effect for all users of 08 and 09 numbers on 1 July 2015.

There are a number of other sites that have sprung up, including Smart Caller. These have loads of errors and misinformation: wrong dates, legislation accredited to the wrong government departments, errors in who the regulations apply to and a general failure to understand how things work.

I am up for assisting in promoting the fact that the 0345 site  e in regard to ofcom legislation as you are. is publishing incorrect information if I can help. I suppose a campaign could be started in a similar way that members stopped the use of 0845 numbers within the NHS and doctors surgeries.

Hi,

In my ignorance I seem to have misunderstood the whole 0345 thing-and worded the information that I wanted to get accross incorrectly I intend to put this right today if possible.

I actually set up the 0345 site following several very expensive hour long calls to the HMRC 0845 number earlier in the year and subsiquently using the 0345 number and not having to pay for the calls..hence the idea ( in my mind) that the calls were free.

The original intention was to simply put together information explaining the need to ensure that 0345 numbers are used to call Government Depts when the option is available

I will spend today changing the terminology on the site to refelct the posts above so that it is more clear and will write a new page explaining the difference between free and inclusive.

I have recognised that a member above seems to be an authority on most numbering matters having noted your posts on dozens of forums, including the 0345 site. - I had taken the information with regard to dates/law from these posting - specifically this one

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Pay-monthly-products-services/0845-numbers/td-p/2417102

My reason for seeminlgy stalking you accorss the web was that i was plucking up the nerve  to ask for your help and as such I am happy to make any changes that you guys suggest.

You certainly have got things in a pickle.

Why did you just pick out 0345 ?

Other O3 numbering ranges are used by Govt Depts.     EG .

HMRC use 0300

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/complain-about-hmrc

and Ofcom use 0300

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/phone/numbering/what-are-03-numbers/

Defra have/had  0370 and 0344 numbers.

bigjohn wrote on Aug 26^th, 2015 at 12:07pm:

You certainly have got things in a pickle. Why did you just pick out 0345 ? Other O3 numbering ranges are used by Govt Depts.     EG . HMRC use 0300 https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/complain-about-hmrc and Ofcom use 0300 http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/phone/numbering/what-are-03-numbers/ Defra have/had  0370 and 0344 numbers.

It seems that way now,  ::)

It was just personal experience TBH.

Initially it seemed pretty straight forward .. A call from my mobile to an 0845 number costs me loads whilst a call to the same place from my mobile but using the 0345 cost me nothing.

Well, fair play for having a go. There's nothing that a bit of considered editing can't fix.

I have dropped you a note with a couple of general pointers.

Hi Ian,

Thank you for taking the time to reply and not hitting me too hard with the n00by stick.

I will take a look at the mesage now.

in the meantime I have added a banner to the entire site referring to a page that spells out in no uncertian terms that 0345 numbers are NOT free.