Bureau de Strange
Saturday: A letter comes from one government department telling me another government department has given me too much money, and if I don't return it, they'll spend several times the sum taking me to court to make me.
Sunday: Civil servants don't work weekends.
Monday: I phone up, and get bounced between six different departments, before finding one who can send an email to a seventh, explaining they've made a cockup and I don't owe them anything.
The seventh phones me, and eventually has to admit that, yes, they made a mistake in their records, I don't possess time travel technology, and I stopped claiming benefit in July, not June.
To correct this mistake they'll change history, retroactively reactivaing my claim in June for just the few minutes it takes (took? will have taken?) to change the file to say what it should.
After which, department 7 will email department 6 who will email department 1 who sent me the letter. But this may take more than a week, during which time department 1 may threaten me some more. Which is why department 7 have agree to send me a letter confirming their intention to contact department 6, which I can show to department 1.
The trouble with seeing the world from behind a desk is, you start thinking the whole world can fit on the desk.
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Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing!
ReplyDeleteAt least you know tax dollars are being well spent in tracking down all that money you didn't owe them.