News from Labour Matters

Yvette Cooper announces free mobile calls to benefit claim lines

Yvette Cooper, Labour’s Work and Pensions Secretary, has announced that from next week six of the biggest mobile phone companies will no longer charge customers for calls to benefit claim lines at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The department said it had reached agreement with O2, Orange, Tesco Mobile, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone to end charges to their customers for mobile calls to make initial claims for benefit and pensions and to request emergency payments, such as crisis loans.

Yvette Cooper told the Press Association: “We don’t want people who lose their jobs or the poorest pensioners to be penalised when they need to claim benefits just because they call from a mobile phone. Lots of people need to use mobiles rather than land lines.

“That’s why we’ve been working hard to get this deal to make sure people don’t lose out.”

Read the full article.