Less than
55 days after my son takes his own life, because he was let down by a system
already under funded, which this government intend to make when further cuts
to, they have the audacity to send me this??
I love the “I love the ” we hope
you will appreciate that when public funds are incorrectly paid we are obliged
to ask for them to be refunded”
When are the MP’s paying back ask the “false
claims” they received??
You want your £41.36 Mr I Needham, fight me for it.
I
Needham those pounds more than you!!
And whilst we’re at it, how about a
counter claim for the death of my child??
A man clearly let down by a
government that is now trying to claim money back on his death.
Very heartless indeed. Why is the name of the deceased in capital letters? That makes injury to the insult. Some one has just filled in a stock letter with the name of the deceased.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost undoubtedly what they have done.
DeletePeople's deaths are reason for a prewritten letter.
That's how much they care.
As the mother says, if only they had been as quick to reclaim the money that miller stole from us to put her parents up in a large house, perhaps it wouldn't have been quite so insulting... or the money it costs us for AirMiles to fly to St Andrews for a round of golf.
They make you want to vomit.
So Billions in unpaid tax carries on.
ReplyDeleteBillions goes to corrupt bankers year after year.
Crooked bankers allowed to carry on regardless.
Millionaires continue to put money into off shore accounts and claim to not have enough money to pay tax.
Millionaires have their lands registered off shore so they don't pay tax.
Millions left in unclaimed benefits.
And WHAT does IDS do? ... sends a disgusting letter to a mother of a son who recently committed suicide demanding repayment of £41.36!!!!!
I can't even come to terms with calling these BASTARDS Muppets! I'll just call them what they are and make no apology for using such language... BASTARDS!!!!
Totally agree.
DeleteI'd have no problem with people reclaiming large amounts of overpaid benefits, if it were the same rule for everyone. But it's not. And to reclaim £41.36 is nauseating. They would get a letter from me telling them to **** off.
It's the same thing with lads who have been killed in action. Their wages stop at the moment they die. If they have been overpaid the bastards ask for the money back.
And these people profess great Christian beliefs (no doubt in order to get themselves elected), becasue I've never come across any religious teaching that would suggest taking £41.36 from a grieving mother was even half way reasonable, moral or ethical...
May no one ever forgive them and may they all rot in hell...at the earliest opportunity..
I agree Tris.
DeleteI linked to this on Twitter and wanted to put "hope IDS gets knocked down by a truck REAL soon" but then thought better of it, not really sure why though cause it would be a great step forward towards rebalancing the incessant attacks on the poor by the mega rich!
Where are the similar letters claiming back every penny we gave to bankers? Non existent, and a classic case of circling the waggons that Westminster does with astounding arrogance.
Delete"Dear Mr X:
We note that we gave you x billion bucks, and knighted you. Please note that no repayment is necessary, heaven forfend! The little people will pay for our gamble, same as it ever was. Best of luck at the stag shooting, your estate is a mervel to behold.
We love you, oh yes we do...."
*marvel
DeleteThat's why Twitter is so dangerous, Arbroath. "SNP trolls on IDS"... although frankly, when it comes to him I can't see anyone much caring.
DeleteWas there ever such a lying, cheating, self centred thicko as him?
Good one Douglas... The might add that a seat in the house of the living dead is just around the corner, as long as a "small" contribution to the party is forthcoming.
DeleteCold callous b*stards,there's no other way to describe them.
ReplyDeleteThis poor man has lost his son,due to the heartless system.
Unfortunarely Osborne has much more pain and misery in store for us, such will be the cuts that Dickensian times will seem positively prosperous,god help us all.
Yes. There is more to come.
DeleteI wonder how much the usually meek and indolent Brits will take before it all becomes too much.
Tris
ReplyDeleteThey should keep it up because they are slowly but surely pushing people closer to the edge and a reckoning will come along. You can't keep pushing and not expect people to push back. We live in a truly disgusting country. That 2nd referendum gets closer every day.
Bruce
There is always that to be said for the way that they treat us.
DeleteOne day the worm will turn, and I wouldn't like to be IDS.
So much for joined up government.
ReplyDeleteAnyone with a student loan debt who dies, has the debt wiped out regardless of the amount. So why the hell are they chasing £40? It costs more in admin to recover this.
The letter will be automatically generated by the system, likely with an auto signature. But there should be a process in order to pick these cases up, which automatically blocks any correspondence until a specialist team deal with it.
I agree that overpaid benefits need to be recovered, but not from the deceased.
DWP are understaffed and overworked, like many government-funded organisations.
Meanwhile, Osbourne goes ahead and decides to sell off RBS at a loss, saying it's the best deal for the taxpayer!!
Can we keep politicians out of government please? Things work better without them.
Ha ... yes. There was a British Prime Minister (I think it was Palmerston) who's motto was "best do nothing". He was probably the best PM they ever had.
DeleteYou're right of course. This £40 will cost them a lot of money to recover. Bloody idiots.
This is deeply heartbreaking, and my condolences to the family involved.
ReplyDeleteI received a similar letter from the DWP because my father failed to contact them to tell them he was about to die from a heart attack before they paid that month's pension. What a truly bloody system we have to live in. No chance to mourn, because our time is taken up with dealing with the overwhelming bureaucracy of a state reclaiming piddling amounts from the relatives of the deceased, rather than chasing the huge amounts owed by international corporations like Amazon, by MPs and members of the HoL with directorships in arms-dealing companies, and by institutions like the British monarchy.
Yes, cynicalHighland (previous post) my medial epicondyle is still functioning at full stretch, but I'm finding it more difficult every day to find things to laugh about, and even less in days to come, I suspect.
Yes. How could people be so careless as to not let the pay office know that they are going to die... or in the services, be killed in the line of duty.
DeleteBut we managed to spend millions of Thatcher's funeral.
Why was she worth so many of this poor woman's poor son.
As Arbroath says...Bastards.
Yup.
DeleteDisgusting, simply disgusting.
ReplyDeleteJust to add to my earlier comment about DWP being understaffed and overworked. It is not just that department; many others are suffering eye-watering cuts. You cannot blame the staff in many of these cases. It is the process that is at fault.
ReplyDeleteMany of the staff in other departments are also in an increasingly desperate situation. They are under immense pressure, but dare not take any form of grievance. Not with many government departments and related organisations undergoing changes - i.e. cutbacks. Stick your head up and you'll be first to go.
If staff are stressed through no fault of their own, they start making mistakes. They get in trouble, get more stressed then make more mistakes. Their managers get into trouble, get stressed and this works it's way down. It's happening right now. Vicious circle who no visible means of escape.
We desperately need the SNP to use their influence at Westminster and get things investigated quickly. Very few individuals are prepared to blow the whistle.
I don't think anyone is blaming the staff, it's the system and the government, that implemented said system.
DeleteThe whole Civil Service has been reduced to an algorithmic approach to dealing with the public. No matter what the citizen has to say, the algorithim will lead to only one conclusion, that the government owns the money and that the person is mendacious, not worthy, a liar, a cheat worth further investigation, whatever. The algorithm has no outcome that recognises a human element.
DeleteYou may have experienced similar things with cold calls. You have to be genuinely rude to break out of their amazing offers to you. This is the exact opposite, but part of the same model of categorising us as 'marks' or 'chancers'. No other human being exists in their world.
When people at the other end of these phone calls or letters are only able to act within parameters that are set vastly above their pay grade, what do you expect? Especially if any sympathy for the poor schmucks is likely career threatening. That is the reality of an instrumentality.
And you know what? None of this applies to billionaires, their rights to secrecy, privacy, tax avoiding domicile, whether here or in the Channel Islands is never closed down, never dealt with.
So:
"It's the rich what get the pleasure,
It's the poor what get the blame,
It's the same the whole world over,
Isn't it a fucking shame?"
We can do better than that.
I'm certainly not blaming staff. I worked for DWP for a short period some 15 years ago, It was without doubt the most miserable and awful job I've ever done. The management was beyond awful, but a good number of the staff were good people working under an incompetent moron and an idiotic regime.
DeleteNow with the devil incarnate in charge, determined to rid the Uk of the sick, the unemployed, the disabled, all seen as scroungers by him and his evil minded colleagues, aided and abetted by the hate press, and with target set for killing off as many of them as possible, I can only imagine that it is enough to drive a reasonable person to suicide.
I think everyone whom I knew has left.
No blame to the staff. It's all down to IDS, may he rot in hell, Preferably by the end of the week.
I don't hate or wish harm on, many people but I can happily make an exception for him.
tris,
DeleteI was sounding off. My comments had nothing to do with you. You are one of the good guys. I never thought you did blame the staff.
It is down to an exclusively 'top-down' management structure where the decision has been made that we, the citizens or 'customers' of this great state, are a bloody nuisance. If we did not exist, perhaps their books would balance.
A major crime against the current Westminster government is to fall off the increasingly ricketty wagon they run. If you have any issues whatsoever, they will do whatever they can to kill you. It is verging on a joke that we discuss 'assisted suicide' when people are committing suicide because of government policy. That goes a bit beyond the non-interventionist, backed up by doctors and judges that the citizen was expected to follow. Oh No! The government simply makes it desireable that you terminate your own life rather than deal with them. And merrily they go on their way and we sink into ethical dilemmas that they couldn't address if it slapped them in the face.
This government is frankly immoral and it corrupts the people that work for it.
I know that Douglas, and I didn;t read what you said as if you thought I was blaming the staff.
DeleteI was sounding off too. :)
This, possibly above anything else about the state, makes me incredibly angry, particularly given that its the same state that allows IDS to claim £38 for his breakfast.
The way this government acts echoes Brecht:
ReplyDelete"After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts.
Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
LOL Yes.... excellent.
DeleteNo doubt this letter will be high-lighted in the mainstream media and cause as much widespread anger and disgust as we feel. Maybe Brillo and Brewer will do a programme on it? Then again, maybe not......
ReplyDeleteNot while there's some SNP bashing to do, John.
DeleteI had the same with regard to my Mother who had the temerity to die whilst on holiday. When I finally got back and before her remains were brought back I had to pop along to the DWP and refund her overpaid pension. By the way I was paid £146 unemployment benefit which I was unable to refund way back in the midst of time. I did have to notify the tax people so they could tax it.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely say one law for the Rich and one for the Poor, it has been ever thus, and will continue until the self same rich get it in the neck.
Funny whilst the poor of Paris were starving it took tax on the burgeoning middle class in France to start the revolution, I await the one heading this way. The rich in France were like the rich every where intent on becoming richer with their eyes firmly closed to the disaster approaching.
Qu'ils mangent de la brioche, Helena!
DeleteHow did that work out again? Oh yeah! (Smirk)
If they would stop coming after the little people and start going after the folk who get away with stealing millions, but get away with it, then maybe the deficit wouldn't be so horrific.
The benefits in the UK, including the pension, are already the second lowest (by comparison to average earnings), in the developed world (behind Mexico). The council of Europe has said that they are insufficient. And still they claw everything back that they possibly can.
Primitive country. Maybe one day they will catch up with the rest of Europe.
Douglas, "people are committing suicide because of government policy."
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised of the numbers include people working for Government departments.
Tris, I understand exactly what you mean. In the public sector, promotion is still often based on who you get on with, rather than your suitability for the role. There are individuals in management positions who would not be tolerated in the private sector. These are the individuals who are supposed to manage you, but have no understanding about what you do, will not listen and belittle you at every opportunity, but in such a way that it is borderline whether it is bullying / belittlement. These people are protected, and the only course of action is via the courts. However, very few are prepared to risk that.
Anon. When I worked for the DWP there was a ridiculous number of the staff on long term sickness due to stress, Of course the management told themselves that the stress was dealing with "customers". In the opinion of most of us the customers were a piece of cake compared to the management. I'd have swapped them any day.
DeleteI agree with all you say above, and I'd add to that that the only thing that matters to area management, is targets. Nothing else at all. You, at the sharp end, may be dealing with sick, damaged, bereaved people. They are dealing with targets and profiles.
Nothing else.
And the trouble with the court route is that it is expensive.
And certainly, in England, now that they have taken away a huge chunk of legal aid, justice is only for the rich.
Sadly I have found that having worked in both sectors there is not much difference in promotion prospects, do ask my Husband about the situation in BT before and after privatisation and he will probably say that at least there was probably not much difference either except previously you got the job because you knew something about what you were doing.
DeleteTris we had similar problems in the Department I worked in the NHS though I have to say some were there because they were the only ones to apply for the low salaries. I would prefer to work for someone who cared enough about their staff that they would investigate before releasing them. Seems now if you suffer from anything be it something they have managed to induce they work like mad to get you out of the job, though if it is a terminal illness even the Works Doctors are unwilling to sign you out.
Anonymous,
DeleteQuite agree. There is nothing more soul destroying than being required to do something that is completely at odds with your own morality. And, as Helena says above, there is an entire internal culture that blames the staff rather than the policies. Bit like the Labour Party really.
Yep agreed...
DeleteThere is no compelling reason to venture out of ones house or stress over not getting the money one needs on time. A man simply needs to fill in a structure with some obliged data like his name, telephone number email address etc. Instant support is allowed thus one future ready to get portable text loans in only a couple of hours. For quick 100 text loans via etextloan
ReplyDelete