Money money money...
It's always nice to start the day with a cheque in the mail...
Back on Monday, when I was at the SAC, we discovered that my IB was wrong - I should have been receiving some sort of age-related premium. After checking and double-checking the figures, I decided to be industrious and go into the SS office to try and sort it out - or at least get the ball rolling on it, as past experiences with the SS have taught me that it's like attempting to teach cows discipline. They just stare at you dumbly, flick their tails, chew the cud and periodically poop.
So, I turned up at the SS office, only to find that they had changed their system round again to minimize the actual contact with members of the public even more, as for all enquiries you now had to call the relevant department direct. Luckily they also had phones in the office for people who didn't know this/had no phone - such as me.
I explained the situation to the nice lady on the other end of the phone (who may well have been the last helpful member of staff in the building), and she looked over the records and agreed that yes, there had been one heck of a cock-up. Of course, fixing it was another matter entirely - she told me that they might well have to delete my account and rebuild it from the ground up to fix it (thus proving that they still haven't fixed that database error from 2003). She did tell me, though, that she would put it through to be looked at marked 'Urgent', and that I could expect a reply from them by the end of the week. I decided not to hold my breath.
Well, I got two letter from them this morning. One was the standard, "Oops, our bad," letter, but with the added bonus of, "We have now fixed the problem and from next week you will be receiving the correct amount." If that wasn't shock enough (the DWP being efficient? Will wonders never cease?), the second letter was a cheque for the backpayment they owed me, as I should have been receiving this premium from February of last year.
The cheque is for £1,091.20.
I don't know what I'm more shocked about - the fact that they've sorted out a backpayment without having to be chased up, the amount the cheque is for, or the simple fact that all of this has been sorted out so damn quickly.
The DWP staff must have been replaced with Pod People. That's the only thing I can think of.
Back on Monday, when I was at the SAC, we discovered that my IB was wrong - I should have been receiving some sort of age-related premium. After checking and double-checking the figures, I decided to be industrious and go into the SS office to try and sort it out - or at least get the ball rolling on it, as past experiences with the SS have taught me that it's like attempting to teach cows discipline. They just stare at you dumbly, flick their tails, chew the cud and periodically poop.
So, I turned up at the SS office, only to find that they had changed their system round again to minimize the actual contact with members of the public even more, as for all enquiries you now had to call the relevant department direct. Luckily they also had phones in the office for people who didn't know this/had no phone - such as me.
I explained the situation to the nice lady on the other end of the phone (who may well have been the last helpful member of staff in the building), and she looked over the records and agreed that yes, there had been one heck of a cock-up. Of course, fixing it was another matter entirely - she told me that they might well have to delete my account and rebuild it from the ground up to fix it (thus proving that they still haven't fixed that database error from 2003). She did tell me, though, that she would put it through to be looked at marked 'Urgent', and that I could expect a reply from them by the end of the week. I decided not to hold my breath.
Well, I got two letter from them this morning. One was the standard, "Oops, our bad," letter, but with the added bonus of, "We have now fixed the problem and from next week you will be receiving the correct amount." If that wasn't shock enough (the DWP being efficient? Will wonders never cease?), the second letter was a cheque for the backpayment they owed me, as I should have been receiving this premium from February of last year.
The cheque is for £1,091.20.
I don't know what I'm more shocked about - the fact that they've sorted out a backpayment without having to be chased up, the amount the cheque is for, or the simple fact that all of this has been sorted out so damn quickly.
The DWP staff must have been replaced with Pod People. That's the only thing I can think of.