Local MP fights unfair phone charges

2.58.42pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 28th Aug 2008

Local MP, Andrew Stunell has condemned phone company, BT, for payment charges that penalise pensioners and those on low incomes.

Now the Hazel Grove MP has signed up to a cross-party effort to push BT to drop the £18 charged annually for those customers who are unable to pay by direct debit.

Commenting, Mr Stunell said:

"Direct debits are a relatively new development, and I know many elderly people are uncomfortable using them when they are on a fixed income.

"At a time when food and fuel bills are rising sharply, it is disgraceful that those worst off should face additional penalties for wishing to have control over their own finances.

"Stockport's poorest families are being forced to pay 'poverty premium' for services, because they do not have access to cheaper payment methods.

"BT's argument that 'everybody does it' is astoundingly immature. This is not the playground, although BT is behaving like the school bully and stealing the weakest kid's lunch money."

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. Andrew Stunell signed the following Early Day Motion no. 1911:

BT'S PAYMENT PROCESSING CHARGES

That this House condemns the introduction of payment processing charges for those customers who are unable or unwilling to pay their bills by direct debit; realises that this will impact more severely on those customers who are less well off, meaning a return to the bad old days of standing charges, where low volume users, such as pensioners and the low paid, lost out considerably by paying this type of charge; regards BT's response to representations on this issue that `everybody else does it' as being less than intellectually robust; and calls on BT to remove these charges and return to a fair system of charging for its services.