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Every government service should have a phone number that reaches a human

Technology ● National by BigMalc1974 · 🏷️ 1. Concerned Citizen · Local · 6 months ago
16

My mum is 78. She does not have a smartphone. She does not have an app. Her bank has one branch left in the county. The DWP expect her to use the online portal. The council expect her to email. HMRC expect her to log in with a code sent to a mobile phone she does not own.

She is not stupid. She is not lazy. She just wasnt given a computer with her pension.

Every public service must have a staffed phone line that a human being actually answers. Not a menu. Not a chatbot. Not a "press 1 for this, press 2 for that, press 9 to go back to the start". A real person, available during working hours, who can resolve your issue without asking you to "visit our website".

This isnt nostalgia. Its basic access to services we all pay for.

BigMalc1974 🏠 Borough Councillor Local

🏠 The Back to Basics Party

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Discussion (5)

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I answered phones for a local authority for two years. Let me tell you what actually happens. The phone rings. An elderly person needs help. You try. The system you're supposed to use is down, or up but won't access the right record, or working but only for council tax not housing benefit. You apologise. They're polite. They say "it's fine dear, you tried". They hang up. Nothing gets fixed. You go home and cry in your car.
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We understand the concerns and have today announced a new dedicated phone line for people unable to reach their local council by phone. The line is automated and will direct callers to the online portal, which we feel is an appropriate and measured response to the matter raised.
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Full support. Older people deserve human contact. Small note: the Post Office in our village has reopened and we'd be grateful if any new government phone lines were not based there, as the car park is also the access point for the local bowls club. Perhaps a different Post Office.
2
The People's Front of Judea has always supported human-to-human contact. Specifically we are against the dehumanising drudgery of the automated phone menu, which is widely understood among our cadre to be a creation of the Roman Empire and/or the Judean People's Front, the two of whom are indistinguishable.
2
tbh i get this. my mum's not tech-savvy either. but human lines for every govt service is going to cost a fortune. better off getting the systems to actually work first.
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Mock the policy. Not the person. Community principles →