§ Mr. LevittTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if the CSA telephone helplines are accessible by hearing-impaired and speech-impaired people through the BT Typetalk relay service. [54061]
§ Mr. DenhamWe expect the Child Support Agency to provide an efficient and effective service to all its clients throughout the child support assessment process.
The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mrs. Faith Boardman. She will write to my hon. Friend.
Letter from Faith Boardman to Mr. Tom Levitt, dated 31 July 1998:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency telephone helplines.BT Typetalk is a service which allows members of the public using text phones to make contact with organisations who do not have similar equipment.The Agency's telephone helplines are equipped with text phones, therefore we do not require the BT service. If a customer contacts a complete action service team direct, arrangements are made to call them back using aline with text phone.The equipment we have enables the hearing-impaired and speech-impaired to make access direct to the Agency and avoid the necessity of having to disclose personal information to a third party.Additionally customers are able to take advantage of the Agency's use of local call rate numbers.I hope this is helpful.