A French firm blamed for this summer’s passport shambles has been awarded a £322million deal to handle calls from Universal Credit claimants.
Teleperformance was fined hundreds of thousands of pounds for its failures with the passport hotline – where at its worst half of calls were not answered and other people were kept on hold for five hours.
But despite the controversy the firm won the new mega deal to handle calls from benefits claimants. Demand for Universal Credit is expected to escalate as thousands of families struggle for cash during the cost-of-living crisis.
Paris-based Tele-performance will take over from Serco, which had been running a number of UC lines since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Responsibilities are understood to cover general inquiries, “evidence interviews” to help confirm UC claimants’ identities, and a triage system for people desperate for advance payment.
Details revealed this week of the three-year deal, which began in August, show some of the calls will be taken by staff working from home.
Though the exact amount Tele-performance was fined is not known, HM Passport Office director Thomas Greig said they were “in the high hundreds of thousands of pounds”.
Labour MP Carolyn Harris, a member of the all-party Home Affairs Committee which looked into the passport fiasco, said: “We have to ask why those in charge are choosing to outsource jobs to overseas suppliers who have proved they are not fit for purpose, rather than seeking to boost our own economy by giving them to UK providers.
“Teleperformance were handed financial penalties yet they have now been given another contract. This is just another example of Government failure, which people up and down the country will pay for.”
The Department for Work and Pensions, which runs Universal Credit, said in the contract Teleperformance would have to “deliver consistent quality telephony service which identify continuous improvement”.
It added Teleperformance would have “flexibility” to ramp resources up and down to meet demand.
The DWP said Teleperformance beat several other providers to win the deal and “met our requirements to best support our claimants while providing overall value for money”.
Teleperformance is run by chief executive Daniel Julien who lives in a £14m Miami beach mansion. Its Passport Office contract is worth £22.8m.
During the summer Passport Office meltdown the Home Office ordered Teleperformance to hire 500 more staff to help sort the problem.
Teleperformance was approached for comment.
