‘We had some feedback that the Vivaldi clip caused anxiety for claimants and in particular had an impact on autistic callers’
The Department of Work and Pensions has changed the music played while it keeps callers on hold, as the soundtrack it has kept since 2006 – 30 seconds of the “Spring” section from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – was found to be distressing to many callers.
The 30-second loop, familiar to many waiting to speak to DWP advisers about benefits problems, caused anxiety to claimants as a result of its repetitiveness, affecting some people more than others.
“We had some feedback that the Vivaldi clip caused anxiety for claimants and in particular had an impact on autistic callers,” said a DWP spokesperson.
The average time that callers to the helpline are left on hold is eight minutes, although sometimes claimants are kept on the line for up to an hour listening to the same 30-seconds of the high-paced classical piece.
The Guardian reports that Four Seasons is being replaced by a 20-minute long mix of unnamed tracks. The DWP has chosen the pieces specifically to reduce anxiety by including “a steady neutral pace and reducing the issue of repetition”.
“We tested it with claimants in Jobcentres and they overwhelmingly preferred it,” a DWP spokesperson has said.
‘Calming and peaceful and light’
“It was seen as more calming and peaceful and light. One person said ‘I loved the Four Seasons, it’s a lovely piece of music’, but most preferred the new music.”
According to a freedom of information request from eight years ago (by which time Vivaldi had been the soundtrack to the DWP’s line hold for six years) the original classical tune was chosen with a mind to “obtain a cost-effective solution”.
The DWP had obtained a licence to play the music for free across “different contact centre operational areas”, and to change it would mean obtaining another licence, making it more costly.
The repetitive 30-second clip has apparently been a well-known source of frustration for benefits claimants over the years, with many joking on community boards about replacements for the soundtrack (‘Hangin’ on the Telephone’ by Blondie being a popular suggestion).
An unsuccessful petition was launched in 2014 to change the song because “if being unemployed was a choice, people would get jobs just so that they don’t have to listen to it”.
