OFFS

[cosmolinguist]

So a jobcentre lady called me, and I know it's to go through the application I filled in online yesterday for JSA and arrange an in-person appointment.

It was about a whole thirty seconds before she told me the NI number on my application was wrong.

My first reaction was actually facepalming and saying "Oh no, not this again." I had a whole bunch of shit the first time I tried to claim benefits, which was part of the reason I spent two years not getting any. I was told contradictory things by every single person I talked to, about whether they had an NI number in their records for me at all, how to find out what it was if there was one, and how best to get one if I didn't have one.

I spent ages on the phone chasing down these frustrating things I was told, even having to get that other great bastion of British kindness and infallibility, HMRC, involved at one point. I made at least one trip to the jobcentre after somebody told me that I did, defying current expectations, have an NI number but they couldn't tell me it on the phone but only face-to-face -- and of course when I got there, the people said they had no record of any NI number for me.

It was the worst kind of bureaucratic hell, and I couldn't believe I'd been dropped in it again.

When I asked to confirm that what was written down was [what I have been led to believe for the last few years was my NI number], in order to eliminate the possibility that it was just a typo or something, she said "I can't tell you." She can't tell me what I wrote down yesterday! I might have gotten a little bit sweary at this point. When a despairing "Why not?" escaped my lips, she floundered a bit and eventually said "We just can't." I had been expecting some bollocks about data protection or something, because that's what I usually got told, but to not even be worth lying to only irked me further. Then she said "Don't you remember what you wrote?" Like this was my sodding fault! I said yes I do! It should have been [what I'd told her before]. I repeated it a couple more times. So by that point I'd lost hope that it was just a typo. I should be so lucky, as to have something so easily dealt with.

I used this number when I complained to the DWP about the treatment I got the last time around. I was allowed to buy a sodding house with this NI number, for Christ's sake.

"The thing is, without your NI number, we can't continue with--"

"I know!" I couldn't help interrupting. "I am already on my second NI number since I moved to the UK because this happened before!"

Clearly knowing that I was not someone she had to deal with any more, her accent slid back in and her speech got more informal as she dropped a bit of her professional persona and fobbed me off with a phone number I'm supposed to call tomorrow morning -- but since she didn't tell me who I'd even be talking to or what I was supposed to expect from them, you might say that my hopes for this are not very high.

I was really sure it'd be better this time. I was really sure that I couldn't possibly replicate some of the horrors of the last time I tried to claim benefits. And here it's starting out just the same goddam way, again.

Comments

[davidgillon]

Ugh, I had fairly good results from complaining to my MP (admittedly he was the then Minister for Disabled People at the time) when DWP were being obnoxious. It would be fair to say it seemed to have put the fear of god into them. Few more details in this blog on my experience with DWP: http://wheresthebenefit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/inept-leading-clueless-jcp-jsa-and.html

[cosmolinguist]

magister rang me with helpful suggestions after he read this (bless him) and his first was "You know politicians! Can you get your MP onto this?" I'm glad you had some luck with that. I had a similar experience, in a way: having a friend who worked at JCP the last time I was having trouble, she recommended I skip the first couple of levels of people to complain to, because I had such complex and wide-ranging problems by that point, and write directly to the Regional Manager. That finally got things sorted! But it's frustrating that going to such lengths is necessary: clearly we ordinary people aren't enough to compel the system to work the way it should, we have to enlist someone Important.

[davidgillon]

Yeah, the system is functionally broken, and I think it's because of an institutionalised contempt for claimants.

There are apparently regional units within DWP/JCP specifically to deal with concerns raised by MPs. That tells you 1) how common it is, and 2) how the whole system is based around having someone more powerful to back you.

It's a sad state of affairs, but unfortunately one we're stuck with.

[davidgillon]

Actually, mentioning that 'last time I had to get the Regional Manager involved to resolve this for me' might be a pretty good strategy for tomorrow's phonecall! It establishes you know how to escalate and that there is a record of previous fuckuppery that could be held against people.

[cosmolinguist]

Well, it wasn't strictly to resolve the NI number thing...though it was partly to ensure the contributions I had from both numbers were now associated with the new one (because otherwise I looked like I was claiming ESA despite having never worked, especially ironic since it was my job that had made me so ill!), which had been one of the most intractable of my many problems relating to that horrible situation. So yes, this is a good point. :)

[sfred]

Argh. So sorry this is happening.

[nanila]

AAAAARGH how incredibly frustrating. I'm so sorry.

[silveradept]

One would think that had been sorted the last time around, with how long it took to actually do it. So sorry that you have to deal with those screwups again.

[cosmolinguist]

Well indeed. Except that I've come to expect that if anything would be efficient, consistent, logical, sensible, humane or even cost-effective, the DWP is sure not to do it. I know not to ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence, but in this case I'm sure the good people of the UK are dealing with both.

[barakta]

OFFS.

Someone needs to sort their data protection out and decide one and for all which NI number you have. Maybe threatening the DWP with the ICO will achieve something.

Useless fucks the lot of them. Refusing to tell you your own data is a common JCP trick and one which makes my blood boil. I've complained formally about that one before!

[cosmolinguist]

And what really gets me is that even if I ring this number tomorrow and somehow manage to sort this out, I don't even know what I'll need to do to register this with the nascent JSA claim and get these people to call me back to have the conversation we were supposed to have today. I'm tired just thinking about how much work they've made for me.

[barakta]

:/ yeh.

[doctorstewie.livejournal.com]

Christ on a Unicorn. I can't imagine what you are going through. All they want is for you to be someone else's problem.

[cosmolinguist]

All they want is for you to be someone else's problem.

Precisely. That's exactly the impression I've always gotten in all the times I tried to claim benefits.

And I want to be someone else's problem, too! I avoided this for as long as my mental health needs would allow, but in the past few weeks the poles have swapped round and where before I was too anxious to deal with any of this, now I'm anxious at the thought of not doing anything about my employment situation.

[uglybuffy.livejournal.com]

Dickheads! Rage!

[cosmolinguist]

I dunno, before this I had the misfortune of living among Americans! Who are pretty good at maintaining industrial levels of awfulness themselves.