http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/letters-to-the-editor/Our-victory-over-pho...Our victory over phone call costsPublished Date: 05 February 2010
Yorkshire Evening Post
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MR Everson is correct that Leeds Citizens Advice Bureau has an 0844 public number but wrong to say that it costs mobile phone callers 40 pence per minute ('CAB should change its number', YEP, January 28).
Leeds CAB has put arrangements in place to ensure that callers from mobile phones are charged no more than callers from landlines – exactly what we are asking government departments to do.
We have made these arrangements despite the huge disparity in resources available to us as a local charity, compared to those of the Department of Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs, etc.
It is widely assumed that Citizens Advice Bureaux are funded by national government but in fact each CAB is a local, independent charity, reliant upon the commitment of volunteers and the goodwill of local funders in order to provide our services.
Callers to Leeds CAB are charged five pence per minute, so a 30-minute call will cost £1.50, the equivalent of a bus fare into town for many.
While that may not be ideal, what concerns me more is that very few people will get to make that 30-minute call because the demand for telephone advice so completely overwhelms our capacity to respond, with over 100,000 calls a year to our phone line.
That is why we are working with local and national partners to find ways to increase provision of telephone advice in response to the ever growing need for our help.
In the meantime, we are very pleased that thousands of people across Britain will benefit from the introduction of 0300 numbers by several government departments, as a direct result of our campaign.
Dianne Lyons, Chief Executive, Leeds CAB
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