In the doldrums of the dole

[venta]

Fun games with the Jobcentre...

On Monday afternoon I trotted down to the Jobcentre to collect forms for the dole. Or whatever one calls it now. Stupid me, one doesn't go to the Jobcentre in person these days, one rings up and talks to them on the phone for half an hour. On the plus side, that means that someone on the phone asks you millions of questions and fills in the damn form for you, which is nice.

At least the bloke I spoke to seemed reasonably human, and apologised for the stupidity before asking questions such as "Who decorated your bedroom?"

However, one of the questions enquired whether I'd claimed benefit before. I said yes, about 8-9 years ago. Oh no, he said, their records didn't go that far back. Which I thought was reasonable; even the tax man only demands 7 years of documentation. So, we went right from the beginning name, date of birth, etc, before we moved on to more exciting areas like why was I out of work and did I have central heating.

Yesterday (commendably speedily) the printed "statement" showed up in the post. Most of its details were correct, except the post office I'd nominated for use in the event of spontaneous bank failure. The statement listed the wrong PO. Instead of the PO on Iffley Road, Oxford, it suggested I use one several hundred miles away.

Which just happens to be West Auckland Road, Darlington - the PO from which I collected incapacity benefity in summer 1998. I'm ruling out coincidence, at this stage. So they do keep records that long and they do tie them together (albeit badly).

I'm not suggesting this is indicative of great government conspiracy, it's just interesting to note that they really do keep information hanging around that long.

Comments

[marjory.livejournal.com]

They are buggers. It'll likely be worth jumping up and down on them for a bit in all circumstances except the one which will result in your getting no money.

If you're thinking of Council Tax/Housing Benefit (former is definitely worth it), look forward to nice long wranglings with the City Council office unless they've very much improved...

Hmmm... it's basically a conspiracy to make you get a job - any job!

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I suspect the bit of civil service that 'knows' your previous local PO is not actually connected to the bit that processed your claim on the phone, so the bloke was telling the truth. That would be joined-up-thinking and thus is not possible within the benefits set-up. :) What's probably happened is that a separate system within DWP has looked at your NIno and found a PO still live, so inserted it automatically. No brains, computers.

I know the systems have moved on from when I was there (approaching 15 years ago) but we couldn't even call up a NIno from a previous claim using the ESJ databases then, we had to - in our particular office, anyway - walk 10 mins down the road to the former DHSS office & use a separate database to get it. Both live, both nationally networked - as far as technology allowed, anyway. It was a set of connected regional networks really, the national one came in just before I left. But anyway. Ridiculous levels of antitech going on there.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

That is slightly worrying, that their databases connect up but they don't know that they do. Maybe the data has gained intelligent life and gone seeking out others of its kind.

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

Shiny geek job going at MMU at the moment (and boy would you love the holiday allowance):
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobfiles/DD015.html
But guessing you are looking to stay down south?

[a-llusive.livejournal.com]

I've been away and full o guests, but just wanted to say how sorry I am about the work thing.
Hugs and all the best for not having to bother about Job Centre bureaucracy for very long.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Shiny, but a bit webby for me, I fear. And yes, Manchester's a bit further north than I'm intending to venture just at the moment.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

I find it marginally more comforting than if they knew what was in their databases!

[condign.livejournal.com]

I would rather suspect that it has gained bureaucratic life. Unlike human life, bureaucratic life lacks in intelligence what it gains in longevity.

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

Hmm, they fill the form in by phone now? I only claimed in the year after I graduated in between temp jobs. It was always a nightmare as everytime the temp job expired you had to wade through a whole mound of paperwork again.

The phone thing does strike me as much more reasonable, although I'm surprised it's not too labour intensive for them - must save them lots of manual correcting and rechecking down the line.