Swindon Housing Benefit people are headless chickens
Dear Max Culpin, or Swindon Council (Housing Benefits),
I received a letter from you telling me that I am not entitled to Housing Benefit, as I did not provide information on time. I am asking you in this letter to look at your decision again, as I did in fact give in all the information you asked for five days before the deadline.
I also want to highlight some of the information you have given in your letters, as some of it is incoherent and inconsistent, and quite frankly gives me the impression that you are either not paying attention or waiting for me to not pay attention.
Can you please, along with reconsidering my Housing Benefit, explain or correct the inconsistent information given to me.
So firstly, concerning my Housing Benefit. I received a letter from you on the 31/05/2011, asking for various information. It stated in the letter:
'please give me the information I am asking for by 26.06.2011'.
You have also stated in your most recent letter, although badly worded:
'I asked you to provide information on and evidence on 27.06.2011'
Well, that statement is inconsistent and a day late with what you asked for in the previous letter, but I'll write about that further in a moment.
I gave in all the information you asked for on the 22/06/2011, 5 days before the deadline. I have attached my receipt to prove this. So, as you can see, I did give in my information before the 27h
Now, concerning inconsistent information. In your most recent letter, made on the 27/06/2011, explaining how I am not entitled to Housing Benefit- amongst the list of things I apparently 'failed to provide', you have stated:
'You have now provided me with a new tenancy agreement.'
I didn't give you a new tenancy agreement until I provided all that information for you on time. This statement you have made is either implying that you can't write accurately, or that you did get my information before the deadline and have lied about not receiving it on time.
Also, in the information listed which I apparently did not give in, you have said that you asked for a:
'enclosed commercial let questionnaire with regards to your rental agreement at this property'.
In my last letter where you were asking for information, you never asked for me to fill in a questionnaire, nor did you provide one.
This inconsistent information is also present and confused me in your last letter (31/05/2011), when you were asking for me to provide information.
Several pieces of the information you asked for did not apply to me (such as working tax and child benefits). Also, you asked for information which I had already given you a few weeks earlier (proofs of identity, payment proof). And of course, now apparently you were supposed to of provided and asked for me to fill in a commercial let questionnaire, which wasn't there.
I have attached the letters as proof of all this as well.
To be frank, I am appalled by the quality of your service, it honestly seems from my point of view, that you do not pay attention, look at the information given to you, or even bother to write coherent letters when asking for more information from me. Either this, or you don't proof read letters before sending them out, and are outright lying to me. You give a bad impression on behalf of Swindon Council, since I now on two occasions have gained the impression that you do not do an important job thoroughly and properly.
Respectfully,
Rebecca Burgess
I'm sorry, I never use this LJ other then to complain, and I've refrained for a while, but this time its gone too far!!!
Arg! I swear, if I went into the Housing Benefits office, there must just be a load of chickens bashing their heads against random 'yes' 'no' buttons on the computers. This happened last year, when I had even less money then I do now, and I couldnt stand it. But after my Mum's solicitor pointed out that they were breaking loads of laws, and we wrote to tell them this (and then I finally got some help to pay rent, like right as soon as we sent a stupid warning letter) I figured I wouldnt have any more problems with them.
But no!! I had a big illustration job earlier this year, was I was very pleased to find paid rent for 3 months (nothing in grand scheme of things, but for me thats a lot). So I ask the benefit people 'cant I just suspend my claim for 3 months, so I can start paying rent as soon as the job finishes?' and they say 'nope, just make a new claim in 3 months, it'll be EASY'. And I thought it would be, never thought I'd have to go through all this bullshit again, but ARRGGHH here it all is again. What twat is assessing my claim, what idiot who cant even use clear grammar and who keeps on giving out inconsistent information in his letters is deciding whether I'm poor enough or not to pay my own rent?!
Really, I just graduated from Uni at the completely wrong time. No jobs ANYWHERE, even for someone who would be happy to just have a cleaning job (even after last year when the hotel I worked at literally broke several laws, again). The council and benefits offices are all over the place, although I shouldnt say cuts are an excuse for them to be messing me around. And I'm not exactly artistically or socially good enough yet to get illustration jobs, even though its the ONLY thing I've been able to get in terms of jobs, can you believe that? =_=
Having said all that, I'm surprised at how content, calm and joyful I am, in spite of all of these money problems. And July is my month off to concentrate on making an entry for Kodansha competition and chill out a bit. Bring on the summer!
I received a letter from you telling me that I am not entitled to Housing Benefit, as I did not provide information on time. I am asking you in this letter to look at your decision again, as I did in fact give in all the information you asked for five days before the deadline.
I also want to highlight some of the information you have given in your letters, as some of it is incoherent and inconsistent, and quite frankly gives me the impression that you are either not paying attention or waiting for me to not pay attention.
Can you please, along with reconsidering my Housing Benefit, explain or correct the inconsistent information given to me.
So firstly, concerning my Housing Benefit. I received a letter from you on the 31/05/2011, asking for various information. It stated in the letter:
'please give me the information I am asking for by 26.06.2011'.
You have also stated in your most recent letter, although badly worded:
'I asked you to provide information on and evidence on 27.06.2011'
Well, that statement is inconsistent and a day late with what you asked for in the previous letter, but I'll write about that further in a moment.
I gave in all the information you asked for on the 22/06/2011, 5 days before the deadline. I have attached my receipt to prove this. So, as you can see, I did give in my information before the 27h
Now, concerning inconsistent information. In your most recent letter, made on the 27/06/2011, explaining how I am not entitled to Housing Benefit- amongst the list of things I apparently 'failed to provide', you have stated:
'You have now provided me with a new tenancy agreement.'
I didn't give you a new tenancy agreement until I provided all that information for you on time. This statement you have made is either implying that you can't write accurately, or that you did get my information before the deadline and have lied about not receiving it on time.
Also, in the information listed which I apparently did not give in, you have said that you asked for a:
'enclosed commercial let questionnaire with regards to your rental agreement at this property'.
In my last letter where you were asking for information, you never asked for me to fill in a questionnaire, nor did you provide one.
This inconsistent information is also present and confused me in your last letter (31/05/2011), when you were asking for me to provide information.
Several pieces of the information you asked for did not apply to me (such as working tax and child benefits). Also, you asked for information which I had already given you a few weeks earlier (proofs of identity, payment proof). And of course, now apparently you were supposed to of provided and asked for me to fill in a commercial let questionnaire, which wasn't there.
I have attached the letters as proof of all this as well.
To be frank, I am appalled by the quality of your service, it honestly seems from my point of view, that you do not pay attention, look at the information given to you, or even bother to write coherent letters when asking for more information from me. Either this, or you don't proof read letters before sending them out, and are outright lying to me. You give a bad impression on behalf of Swindon Council, since I now on two occasions have gained the impression that you do not do an important job thoroughly and properly.
Respectfully,
Rebecca Burgess
I'm sorry, I never use this LJ other then to complain, and I've refrained for a while, but this time its gone too far!!!
Arg! I swear, if I went into the Housing Benefits office, there must just be a load of chickens bashing their heads against random 'yes' 'no' buttons on the computers. This happened last year, when I had even less money then I do now, and I couldnt stand it. But after my Mum's solicitor pointed out that they were breaking loads of laws, and we wrote to tell them this (and then I finally got some help to pay rent, like right as soon as we sent a stupid warning letter) I figured I wouldnt have any more problems with them.
But no!! I had a big illustration job earlier this year, was I was very pleased to find paid rent for 3 months (nothing in grand scheme of things, but for me thats a lot). So I ask the benefit people 'cant I just suspend my claim for 3 months, so I can start paying rent as soon as the job finishes?' and they say 'nope, just make a new claim in 3 months, it'll be EASY'. And I thought it would be, never thought I'd have to go through all this bullshit again, but ARRGGHH here it all is again. What twat is assessing my claim, what idiot who cant even use clear grammar and who keeps on giving out inconsistent information in his letters is deciding whether I'm poor enough or not to pay my own rent?!
Really, I just graduated from Uni at the completely wrong time. No jobs ANYWHERE, even for someone who would be happy to just have a cleaning job (even after last year when the hotel I worked at literally broke several laws, again). The council and benefits offices are all over the place, although I shouldnt say cuts are an excuse for them to be messing me around. And I'm not exactly artistically or socially good enough yet to get illustration jobs, even though its the ONLY thing I've been able to get in terms of jobs, can you believe that? =_=
Having said all that, I'm surprised at how content, calm and joyful I am, in spite of all of these money problems. And July is my month off to concentrate on making an entry for Kodansha competition and chill out a bit. Bring on the summer!