IT | Tania Mason | 1 Jun 2009

Up until August 2006, the UK’s biggest debt counselling charity delivered help via a telephone helpline that was staffed 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday. If the caller needed advice beyond what the helpline adviser could provide, an appointment was booked with a debt counsellor, but this could take several weeks. Increasing demand on the helpline created bottlenecks in the process, and in 2004 a survey of users showed that three in five felt the appointment process needed to be improved.