Emergency phone lines

Vulnerable and older people are missing out badly by not being able to speak directly to officials about urgent problems that they face.

That is the conclusion drawn by  Ellesmere Port and Neston MP Justin Madders who has told the House of Commons of the pre-festive experiences of some of the residents that he represents. "It felt as if the whole country was falling apart, frankly.”

He told MPs: “When we had that extremely cold weather just before Christmas, I was inundated with messages from constituents.

“They were contacting me because they could not speak to a human being at the organisations responsible for dealing with their emergencies. It was not just one sector – it was housing, water and energy.

“My constituents were often confronted with phone lines that no-one was answering or directed to websites with chatbots that could only take very basic information.”

Mr Madders added: “We are talking about people who are very vulnerable, sometimes elderly and often unable to access the internet. A whole range of services simply are not set up to deal with these situations.

“We need a much better system to ensure that those who are most vulnerable can speak to a human being, get information across about the emergency they face and make sure that someone deals with it.”

Speaking at Questions to the Leader of the House, Mr  Madders asked: “Can we please have a debate about ensuring that these customer-facing organisations are in a much better place to deal with these situations?”

Replying to him, the Leader of the House, Penny Mordaunt MP, encouraged Mr Madders to write to the Cabinet Office with his feedback and suggestions for improvements. “I shall ensure that they are looked at seriously,” she said.

“I also think his experiences will be of value to the national resilience teams which want to ensure that everyone is using good practice.”

Any constituent seeking help from Justin Madders MP can call 0151 355 2365 or email: 

justin.madders.mp@parliament.uk

Two of Cheshire West and Chester Council contact telephone numbers have changed to Freephone:

HELP (Help in Emergencies for Local People) – 0808 175 3599.

West Cheshire Homes advice line – 0808 175 3595.

Also, ForHousing - 0300 123 55 22