Mendip District Council has introduced a new covert tax for residents who have enquiries about paying their council tax.

http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/Council-tax-operation-change-madness/article-1813897-detail/article.html

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Council tax operation change "madness"
Monday, February 08, 2010, 15:08

Sending jobs to Coventry as the county recovers from a recession is madness, according to a local resident.

On Monday the council tax billing operation transferred from Shepton Mallet to the West Midlands' city.

While a spokeswoman for the council stressed that there were no job losses resulting from the move, one resident who had to use the system on Monday described it as a backward step.

The resident, who has asked not to be named, said he received a late-payment letter from Mendip on Saturday, February 6, and was amazed when it stated they had to receive some payment from him by February 3.

"First thing on Monday morning I rang them to make the payment, while also pointing out that as I'm not a time-traveller I would not be able to pay by their deadline," he said.

"But they then informed me I had to phone a new number, an 0845 number.

"That was when they told me that they had switched the operation from Somerset to Coventry.

"I couldn't believe it. At a time when we are still coming out of a recession, they are moving jobs elsewhere.

"They told me the decision had been made corporately and was based on making efficiencies.

"However this is not a private company we are talking about, but an organisation that has a duty of care to citizens in the county.

I do not think it is in the best interests of citizens in Somerset to be employing people elsewhere."

The resident added that he also had some concerns with the new 0845 telephone number, as calls to the former 01749 number were free, but he has to pay for the low-call rate.

"While I understand a lot of firms are switching to these telephone numbers in fact for many people, including me, whose have geographically-based telephone packages, this does not help," he said.

A spokeswoman for Mendip District Council confirmed the new arrangements had been put into place for Monday morning.

From Monday customers ringing Mendip District Council are prompted to call 0845 300 3352 directly with any queries relating to council tax and housing benefit. A recorded message on the general Mendip phone system will relay the new number to residents.

"In an effort to improve service we have introduced a dedicated revenues and benefits line, among other benefits it ensures lower waiting times , specialised staff available to take calls at a reduced cost to the organisation," said the spokeswoman.

"There haven't been any job losses, the calls were being taken partly by our customer services team and partly by our revenues and benefits team.

"The new number creates a one-stop shop to answer and deal with enquiries, freeing up some time for our customer services department to deal with other service-related enquiries and allowing our revenues and benefits team to concentrate on processing claims.

"Therefore creating a more efficient service for the customer and offering better value for money."

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They even trot off the "low-call rate" nonsense, just to try and cover up what they're doing!

Dave wrote on Feb 9^th, 2010 at 12:12pm:

They even trot off the "low-call rate" nonsense, just to try and cover up what they're doing!

Not at all. They have chosen to use a premium rate number and have selected one of the lowest charging such numbers.

As premiums go, 10p per minute from a landline or 40p per minute from a mobile is relatively cheap.

The fact that they can describe the premium as "low" is an admission that there is a premium.

If they were offering a "Premium Rate Service" the charge would be even higher. That is not the intention, they are saving money for Council Tax-payers in general at the expense of those who have to ring up with queries.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Feb 9^th, 2010 at 1:04pm:

The fact that they can describe the premium as "low" is an admission that there is a premium.

You must be one of only a tiny few who regard the "low-call" phrase to have this meaning.  ::)

Many people see it and are taken in by the cosy feeling it gives, due to its similarity with "local rate". If it were labelled "low premium call rate", then they would think differently. This sort of confusion is one of the principal reasons why these numbers are in such widespread use.

Dave wrote on Feb 9^th, 2010 at 1:49pm:

You must be one of only a tiny few who regard the "low-call" phrase to have this meaning.

There are indeed many who are drawn to misunderstand the meaning, or to rely on the general impression given without trying to determine any particular meaning.

What then is the alternative true meaning, which you suggest the majority regard it to have?

If the costs of all types of telephone call were to be banded, how many bands would there need to be before calls to 0845 numbers could not be placed in the band labelled "low"? (I suggest that there would need to be at least 4, perhaps 5 or more.)

I find this type of argument to be very silly and not helpful to our cause, which is why I propose a more useful and accurate way of dealing with this.

Given the understanding that I hold, whilst the phrase continues in use, I feel that we are better placed exposing it for what it is, as it contains an element of truth, rather than trying to portray the cost as being "high", when in many cases, and perhaps in general, it can be shown that it is not.

FOI response from Mendip District Council:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/29191/response/72277/attach/3/853%20Response.pdf

The information requested was the percentage of revenue from the council’s new benefits/council tax helpline (08453003352) which goes to Mendip District Council and Capita respectively. The answer was simply that neither receive any remuneration from the number.

Dave wrote on Sep 4^th, 2010 at 11:18am:

The answer was simply that neither receive any remuneration from the number.

The format of the question missed the point that with the lower rate revenue sharing numbers the benefit is not necessarily passed on to the user of the number as revenue, or "remuneration" per call. It is only with the higher rate numbers that net revenue is obtained from incoming calls.

The "revenue sharing" takes place between the respective originating and terminating telephone companies. One hopes that the user of the number will ensure that the benefit received by its telephone company is somehow reflected in the terms of the contract, but this could be in many different ways. It is not uncommon for the standard price charged for the use of various incoming call facilities to be reduced to reflect an assumption about the revenue likely to be derived, based on expected / historic call volumes.

Where there is a third party providing the call centre service it is extremely difficult to isolate the actual financial benefit derived from the use of the revenue sharing number by each party, even on a notional basis. If this happens to be explicitly specified in the contracts, then it would be likely to fall subject to exemption on grounds of commercial confidentiality in the context of a FOI request.

I would suggest simply obtaining the call volumes and durations and then assert that someone is benefiting to the tune of at least 2p per call minute.

(It is probably too late to drag this one up again.)

Source: Mendip District Council

New contact number for Mendip District Council

From Monday, 3rd June all council enquiries will be directed to just one, local rate geographical number - 0300 303 8588. It will be operated by Capita, which goes to show that it can provide outsourced services without a 084 number!