“Unsatisfactory” warnings performance of in private The firm operating the information line of the beleaguered passport office was made to government ministers more how year back, it can be revealed.
Teleperformance, a multinational corporation owned by France. failed to achieve goals for answering calls and emails as early as May 2021, according to official documents seen Observer.
They are show what review of this is performance last summer came to the conclusion that it is necessary improvement. But instead it got worse over in the months that followed, prompting officials to pledge that they work with firm to improve standards.
The exposure takes place against the backdrop of a growing crisis in the passport office. with thousands of people can’t travel for holidays, weddings, funerals and family emergencies due to delay in filing applications.
The deputies were told last On Wednesday, as some 50,000 Britons waited more than 10 weeks for their passports, with 550,000 applications in in system in June.
They say that the department has too few employees to deal with with post-pandemic demand and has failed to attract new picks up fast enough.
Teleperformance, which does not process passports but is first dot of contact for people looking for advice on their statements are accused of aggravating the backlog, giving useless and sometimes inaccurate advice.
customer service agents, who paid just above the minimum wage and work from home, in in many cases there is no clearance required for access safe house details office system.
The informant said people turned around up at the passport officesin their crowds” after receiving “bad service” from the helpline, leaving other employees to work for service for pick up pieces. “By the time the customers arrive us they say they got cut off put the phone down down on they were told that they just must wait for someone to get in touch and then no one receives in touch. They are very angry,” she said.
She is added what is “net volume” of applications combined with a shortage of staff meant workers were processing paperwork.”just I can’t go through them all.”
Friday Dame Diana Johnson MP, Chairperson of in home affairs committee, urged the Ministry of the Interior, which runs passport office, review five-year contract for £22.8m with The TV performance, whose hotline she said was “one of the biggest frustrations that apps cite.”
In a letter to home secretary Priti Patel, she said the department should focus on “training call operators so that they can access secure systems and “provide meaningful, timely and useful advice.” She said she was “extremely disappointed” by the “rejection”. of The teleplay will appear before the committee, which she said raised questions about accountability of Home office contractors.
Ministers first knew that Teleperformance was not achieving its goals last summer after official report found that it works of Home office contact center services “didn’t meet threshold level and was unsatisfactory” for a number of indicators.
By October performance rating on According to a subsequent audit, prompt response to calls and emails fell even further to “inadequate”. It states that the provider and passport office are “working closely” to improve service by “increasing the number of of security personnel required spend work”- still the same problems were raised by deputies last a week.
Stephen Kinnock, Labor Shadow minister for immigration office, said the “collapse at the passport office” had “catastrophic consequences” on people throughout the UK.
Priti Patel has been warned by officials last year that the passport office is inefficient and will not be able to cope with quite predictable post”The lockdown surge, but she didn’t lift a finger,” he said.
The Union of Public and Commercial Services stated: “This situation is not failure of employees, who work meet tirelessly demand failure of in government”.
The passport office said that last April said people to allow up up to 10 weeks for applications for a passport result of increased demand. The spokeswoman said 97.7% of applications have been processed during this time in in first half of 2022 but it people should “apply with lots of of time before travel” as the Agency could not “compromise security checks”.
Teleperformance UK stated: “For past months, Teleperformance worked with his client to cope with an unprecedented surge in volumes and our current level of service significantly improved”.
Additional Reporting: Jasmine Gadhavi
