A Brexit helpline set up by the Government is being manned by £9-an-hour workers trained with EU-themed word searches.
Up to 250 short-term staff are being recruited to answer queries from small businesses about how to handle leaving the EU.
The “advisers” are being given four-week crash courses, using pop quizzes and mock scenarios featuring make-believe customers.
And fears have been raised that the new recruits are nowhere near equipped to deal with queries from small businesses across the UK.
Sources say the staff – employed on two-week contracts – are being sent crosswords and word searches with Brexit-related terms to prepare.
UMi, a business support provider based in Seaham, County Durham, is subcontracted by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to run the helpline.
The firm normally advises companies on subjects such as new start-ups, immigration queries and export finance.
It originally hired staff ready for the March 29 Brexit deadline – but laid them off again when Theresa May was unable to strike a deal.
Now it has begun taking on huge numbers to deal with the potential fallout of a No Deal exit. The hotline is expected to go live on Friday.
Sources say the decision for the firm to hugely expand its Brexit team has to be kept secret for “political reasons”.
One said: “The workers have been told it is top secret – but it’s chaos. No one knows what happens, and the new recruits are totally unprepared to deal with something so complex.
“The first few weeks of ‘training’ consisted of them sending out crosswords and word searches with Brexit-related words in them.
“Then new starters were given scenarios pretending to be from a customer and everyone was meant to reply saying how they’d respond.
“But how can they advise on complex business issues when we don’t know how our relationship with the EU will look? It’s a mess.”
A Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy spokesman said: “Getting businesses ready for Brexit is our top priority. Leaving the EU presents British business with an historic opportunity and we will work together to forge an outward looking, free trading, entrepreneurial and creative United Kingdom.
“The whole of government has stepped up a gear and increased the pace of our preparations as we get ready to leave on 31 October, implementing the democratic mandate of the British people.”
