the tax credits saga rolls on?

after being unable to contact the offices - 0845 300 3900 all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday... permermantly engaged, i managed to get through to the office this morning to be told 'sorry we cannot answer you call at the moment'!
great so now its cost me 5p to connect and be told to ring back... i ring again and after 6 times of the same message and 35p later i get a different message - press one etc now i pressed 5 to speak about my existing claim then i get told by the machine that they are unable to speak to me again another 10p due to the length of the call..

absolutely dreadful and for a service that is supposed to give you money (if eligible) for them to take the money from you via the phone system is terrible. how are people who use payphones supposed to contact and resolve the issues.

but my award went from £869 to £3k which makes a big difference.

i don't know why the difference is so great and guess what neither did the woman on the helpline, she 'just puts the figure into the computer and the computer gives the answer'!

so my tips would be only ring if its not at a peak time - 16:40 thru 17:20 and 18:00 thru 20:00