WYRE FOREST Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is on the warpath over the "exorbitant" cost of telephoning government departments.

The CAB says the high charge for "08" and "03" numbers places an "unnecessary burden on vulnerable, hard-pressed families".

Experienced advisors from the agency often spend hours on the phone trying to get through to the right officers to deal with their queries.

And the CAB fears members of the public without their expertise face even longer delays in getting through to departments.

Kate Bennett, Wyre Forest CAB manager, said: “Last month nearly a quarter of our calls were to government departments.

"Landline calls to government ‘08’ and ‘03’ numbers are expensive but when phoned from a mobile, they are an exorbitant cost, which hard pressed families cannot afford as many only have mobiles.

"As families face debt problems, it is critical that they can afford their mobile access."

Mrs Bennett told of a member of CAB staff waiting 47 minutes to report an issue concerning somebody's tax credits.

She described it as a "crazy length of time for anyone to have to wait to talk to someone in a goverment department".

"Aside from the cost in manpower, the landline call cost £4.27," she added.

"We made a total of four calls to tax credits - which took over an hour and a half - four more calls to the Inland Revenue took nearly two hours, and just two calls to the Department of Work and Pensions took over half an hour."

Almost a quarter of the Wyre Forest CAB's monthly land line telephone bill of around £85 plus VAT is to government departments.

"The government has funnelled everything via telephone but we are reaching the stage where we might go back to writing, rather than phoning, which will obviously take more time.

"Our advisers know what to say and what buttons to press when they go through to these departments - but members of the public who are less confident will run up even bigger phone bills."

Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier agreed that government departments needed to "pull their finger out" in response times to callers.

"It's something that we on the Treasury Select Committee have raised repeatedly with HMRC," he added.

But he said there were issues about whether individuals using the service should pay for calls - or the cost should be distributed among taxpayers.

And there was an issue about "punitive" rates charged by mobile phone companies for calls to premium lines.

Mrs Bennett advised people to check the website www.saynoto0870.com for ordinary land line numbers for large organisations, rather than phoning published high rate numbers.