Challenging bureaucracy and upholding my right to protect my information.

ben500

healy wrote: »

Right so this is just youre opinion. You must have been involved with many people at the DWP all over the Country to know of this contempt!

You didn't address the question posed in the post, how is it a demonstration of my attempting to speak on behalf of others?

zappster1966

How on Earth do so many staff seemingly show contempt for their customers ? Do you not understand that many staff are customers because the wages are so dire that they qualify for the very benefits they help administer ?

So. You've had a bad experience with them before. That's not good enough, no excuses for that. But get over yourself. Look at help DWP staff provide on MSE, look at the brilliant work Thana is doing over on the Disability & Dosh forum. Consider the contribution too that DWP staff provide anonymously here in the Benefits forum. You can't damn them all.

ben500

I don't condemn them all, just those that are deserving. I haven't once used the term "all". As for the help that dwp staff give on here I'm sure the recipients are grateful and the suppliers are to be commended for that help, however I would ask the question why do these people feel the need to come to mse? Surely this information should be supplied to them by the agency they are dealing with at point of application? I suspect that in too many cases they are too busy making unreasonable and unsupported demands for unnecessary documentation, rather than dealing with their clients in an informative and helpful manner. It's interesting to see how the op is viewed as having wasted resources in order to challenge the request even after his challenge is found to be justified.
I would suggest the original request was unreasonable and unwarranted and the the time consumed pursuing that request was wasted by the people at dwp and NOT the op.

deary65

zootet wrote: »

Not many of you deserve an update to this story, but here's my last 2p to you lot.

The problem is finished. I spoke again to processing, who wanted me to return to jobcentre and allow my documents to be copied. By way of an olive branch I offered to come directly to their office to let the dog see the rabbit. This was met with an initial negative response then they went to discuss it with a manager, came back 3 min later and suddenly everything was fine they had no need to see the actual documents for themselves and could trust the eyes of the JCP advisor,

Looks like I won't be having to set a legal precedent afterall.

Thanks to the 10% of you who either could see my POV or who could respond to the qu's without vitriol.

May i congratulate you for not being one of the sheeple on this board!:T

hanny83_2

I myself am a DWP employee. It's quite interesting what people think of us, but I can only speak for myself- I work hard and try and absorb as much information regarding my job as I can. I endeavour to help other people.

I think most people seem to forget that respect is a two-way thing though.

seven-day-weekend

And I would like to say, the only staff I personally have dealt with are the ones who administer Incapacity Benefit, who, without fail, I have found polite and helpful, and even giving me information of which I was not aware and had not asked for. Can't fault them.

ben500

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

And I would like to say, the only staff I personally have dealt with are the ones who administer Incapacity Benefit, who, without fail, I have found polite and helpful, and even giving me information of which I was not aware and had not asked for. Can't fault them.

And that's exactly how it should be.

healy

ben500 wrote: »

You didn't address the question posed in the post, how is it a demonstration of my attempting to speak on behalf of others?

I did read the first line, you did not address my comment that followed but that is ok as you are boring me now.

zappster1966

ben500 wrote: »

I don't condemn them all, just those that are deserving. I haven't once used the term "all". As for the help that dwp staff give on here I'm sure the recipients are grateful and the suppliers are to be commended for that help, however I would ask the question why do these people feel the need to come to mse? Surely this information should be supplied to them by the agency they are dealing with at point of application?

They come here out of the goodness of their hearts to help other people, simple as. And it takes a very special person to do that after a day working in the DWP, I assure you (and that's from past experience).

Why are folks being let down by the benefit system ? Usual excuses apply. Increasing unemployment is leading to pinchpoints in the whole system & the DWP has to keep the staff headcount down to keep the Treasury happy. In fact there's another 12,000 staff to get rid of over the next 18 months if the DWP is to meet its targets.

Thanks to this government benefit offices have been closed all over, with staff either being made redundant or compulsorily transferred to offices in some cases tens of miles away from where they used to work. Specialist teams have been broken up & their members scattered all over the place. The few trainees taken on are having to miss major parts of their training because of the pressure from on high to get bums on seats. Mistakes are being made & mistakes take much longer to sort out.

ESA has just been introduced too. That's meant staff are coming off Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance & Incapacity Benefit and having to go into training for many weeks. Meanwhile their poor colleagues are being overwhelmed by the volumes of work coming in.

Longer term about 30-35% of DWP staff are due to retire in the next ten years & with few staff getting taken on it's going to lead with major problems over the next few years.

But nevermind. So long as Joe Bloggs doesn't have to hand in 3 bits of photocopying all's right in the world

ben500

healy wrote: »

I did read the first line, you did not address my comment that followed but that is ok as you are boring me now.

A glowing example, you stated in your post that I "went on to speak on behalf of everybody", I asked you to demonstrate the substance for this totally inaccurate statement, you then post ignoring that.

As for boring you am I meant to be insulted by that? I may have been inclined to address your comments had you chose not to fabricate your attributations aimed at me.