The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has ditched Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as its telephone hold music after research revealed callers found the soundtrack “repetitive” and “stressful”.
The Italian composer’s famous Spring concerto has greeted millions of frustrated welfare claimants since it was first introduced in 2006.
But far from soothing them during their wait to speak to a helpline representative, many found the track – played on a 30-second loop – tedious and, in some cases, distressing.
“We did some research and found that the Vivaldi clip caused anxiety for claimants and in particular had an impact on autistic callers,” a DWP spokesperson said.
“A number of people said they found it repetitive and stressful.”
The department’s average on-hold time is eight minutes but waiting times can be anything up to an hour, meaning some callers were having to endure the snippet dozens of times.
The DWP has replaced Vivaldi with a 20-minute mix of eight unnamed tracks which, the spokesperson said, aim to reduce anxiety by evoking “a steady neutral pace and reducing the issue of repetition”.
“We tested it with claimants in job centres and they overwhelmingly preferred it,” they explained.
“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.”
The original decision to play the classical segment was driven by the department’s “desire to obtain a cost-effective solution”, the Guardian reported.
The DWP had obtained a licence to play the music for free and any alternatives would have cost the taxpayer money, it revealed via a Freedom of Information request.
Five years after the clip’s introduction, an online forum suggested anyone wishing to speak to a welfare worker would need “the ability, while on the phone, to refrain from turning to your colleagues and saying ‘If I hear Vivaldi’s Four Seasons one more effin’ time …”
In 2014, an unsuccessful online parliamentary petition was lodged demanding that the DWP scrap the Four Seasons.
“Anyone who rings the DWP with a query has to listen to Vivaldi’s Spring on repeat for 45 minutes," it said.
“If being unemployed or disabled was a choice, people would get jobs just so that they don’t have to listen to it.”
