Re: The Problem with the Civil Service.
The first problem is in the name, most of them are not civil, and they certainly do not provide a service, most are just jumped up little Hitlers, including I am sad to say a cousin of mine who headed up several major departments over the years.
I had a run in with the CSA, they wanted money for a child who I and several others believed I had not fathered, the only way out was to pay £400 for a DNA test, if it proved I wasn't the father then I could claim the money back from the girl in question, since she was on benefits this would probably be at £1 a week!
The people in the jobcentre are no better, back in the day they were just obstructive, now or so I am reliably informed, they are not allwed to advise you on what benefit you are entitled to, you try and claim one and if you get knocked back you try and claim for another!
I have two memories of my involvment with the benefits system, the first was when I lost my job just after getting married, I went to sign on and there was this fat bloke sat behind this big glass screen, he thought he could speak to you like crap because of the glass. I intended on complaining about him but he would not give me his name, so when the supervisor came to see me she asked who I wanted to complain about so I replied, 'the big fat barsteward over there' she said she wasn't suprised he was being funny if I was calling him things like that so I told her I had asked for his name and he refused to give it! "you have to agree he is grossly fat, and probably of dubious fatherhood" I said, adding "and since he wouldn't give his name that's what I intend calling him". The second one was when I was on holiday, the owner of the guest house worked for the DWP and made money on the side by filling in claim forms for people 'correctly' so they got aomething. We were talking over a beer one night and he told me something interesting. He said that there was a trick to filling forms in and it was on the last page. the last page contained a declaration, worded something like this.
I (insert name) having read this form wish to claim this benefit and all information I have given is true to the best of my knowledge.
The trick was this, you crossed out bits and added bits before signing it so it went like this.
I (insert name) wish to claim the above benefit and any others to which I may be entitled, the information I have given is true to the best of my knowledge.
You then signed and dated the form, by adding the 'and any other benefits' bit it meant that whoever was processing your form had to actually look at it properly and if it did turn out you were entitled to something you were not aware of, they had to give it to you.
The bloke said that as well as the possibility of getting something extra, they were unlikely to mess you about as it gave the impression that you knew your way around the system.