Councils swamped by calls on benefits

One authority reported an extra 7,000 telephone inquiries on the first day after the changes were introduced and calls were taking 13 per cent longer to deal with.

Another complained that more than a fifth of the extra calls it received were as a result of wrong information from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

A third Yorkshire council saw applications for “hardship payments” go up from 44 in April 2012 to 284 last month.

A raft of changes to the welfare system came into force last month including new rules on housing benefit and reforms to the council tax benefit system which mean hundreds of households across the region have received bills for the first time.

Sheffield City Council saw a 48 per cent rise in calls to its contact centre in the first half of April compared with last year and a 13 per cent increase in face-to-face inquiries.

Council leader Julie Dore said: “The huge increases in phone calls that the council has received demonstrates that the Government’s unfair cuts to welfare are hitting Sheffield people hard and many people are facing huge difficulties due to these reckless cuts.

“Once again, we are seeing the most vulnerable being hit by this Government and we have recently seen research from Sheffield Hallam University indicating that welfare cuts are hitting the incomes of people living in Sheffield a lot harder than the most affluent areas of the country.”

The DWP has said there is advice available at Jobcentre Plus offices and online as well as specialist benefit hotlines.

The Government is also in the process of introducing a “universal credit” which it says will help to simplify the benefits system.