He is very difficult to reach certain public services by telephone, according to a study published this Thursday by the association 60 million consumers and carried out with the Defender of Rights. A worrying finding, especially for the 15% of French people who do not have internet at home, mostly elderly, precarious or foreign people, and who, during this obstacle course, sometimes give up their rights.
CAF and health insurance for absent subscribers
According to this study, based on 1,532 calls made between September 26 and November 10, 2022, 72% could not get health insurance. Only 22% received answers that were considered “acceptable” and 5% “accurate” answers.
When calling CAF (Family Allowance Fund), 54% of callers got no one on the line. And also there, when someone answers, the explanations are considered insufficient, otherwise refer to the website.
Pôle Emploi and the Pension Insurance Fund fare slightly better with 84% and 72% of successful calls respectively. But there again, the answers are considered insufficient.
Too many calls, not enough agents
According to the health insurance department, these deficiencies are due to the doubling of calls that have been made since the Covid crisis. They have gone from 20 million a year on average to 40 million at the moment. Added to this is the lack of telephone advisers, only 2,000 at Social Security. A situation that is unlikely to improve, as it is very difficult to recruit in this sector, the management regrets.
As the dematerialization of public services accelerates, the association demands 60 million consumers, together with the Defender of Rights, a law that imposes multiple forms of accessespecially through the establishment of a local desk that brings together a representative of each organization.