John Pugh    MP, Member of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“Those citizens who need to apply for benefits, seek advice, claim a pension or look for a job increasingly do so by phoning one or more of the ‘contact centres’ established by the Department for Work and Pensions. The local offices which people used to visit are in many cases no longer there. This is, in theory, a welcome advance in how the DWP interacts with citizens. In practice, the telephone service provided has often been unresponsive, overcomplicated and unreliable. This has got to change.