Musings of an author 4: Bureaucracy

A little brown envelope dropped through the letterbox. An explosive bomb of distress. A Court Summons for Non Payment of Council Tax.

Seven months ago, I arrived back in England after escaping the quake in Japan with my two young children. I sought to seek a job whilst single-handedly looking after the children. In the interim I needed benefit. I chose Job Seekers Allowance.

Faux pas. Seven weeks later, no job and no benefit had presented itself.

I had also underestimated the magnitude of looking after our two young boys as a single parent. There were also exhausted overdrafts and loans and not forgetting the debt I returned to - because our mortgage provider had ignored my request to repossess a shared ownership on a house we had in the UK. These were all leaving us penniless. Minimum payments were keeping the wolves off our back but lending to do this was still not a good idea.

I explained this to the Job Centre office. They then told me that to ease off the pressure why don't I switch over to Income Support as I have one child under seven, my youngest Eriah was currently six years old. They also informed me that this would take the pressure of finding a job so I could concentrate more on my family needs.

It was a good idea.

Two weeks later I received Income Support. As I was in receipt of this I was then able to receive Housing Benefit to help with rent and Full Exemption on Council Tax.

Problem solved?

Not yet, I still have the problem of Non Payment of Council Tax and the Court Summons. Remember the brown envelope that dropped through the door? For the same reasons I received Housing Benefit and Full Exemption on Council Tax - now worked against me. After seven months I have still not received the seven weeks of Job Seekers Allowance that I was trying to claim before I moved onto Income Support.

As I have not received that money means I was not in receipt of it. You have to be in receipt of it to claim Housing Benefit and you have to be in receipt of it to claim Full Exemption on Council Tax.

So not only have I not been paid seven weeks of Job Seekers Allowance. I have not been paid seven weeks of Housing Benefit and furthermore I have a seven week debt of Council Tax that does not receive Full Exemption.

That is what the Court Summons is for.

I had made numerous requests initially during the first seven weeks. I have made numerous requests also during the rest of the seven months. I have been to the Job Centre numerous amount of times, the office staff there are very kind. However, they are not the people who make the decisions on who receives what. I have to talk into a telephone - which links to a call centre - which is staffed by an outsource centre - who then submit my request to a claim decider - who then will call me in three hours. (Does this sound like the house that Jack built?) They do call back but believe me when I say it is often on the cusp.

However, this morning was an exception, they called me back in two hours.

And this is what they have informed me. A decision to pay me has been made. I am entitled to the Job Seekers Allowance. The seven weeks of payment that I am entitled to had been decided over a month ago. However, instead of going to the processing department it ended up at Haywood House. This is a part of the Job Seekers Allowance department that is in another town in the North West of England. Haywood House would be more appropriate if it was called Haywood Forest with its huge trees of catalogued claims on paper and electronic files. Everything gets lost here. Any file for some reason that cannot be fully processed finds its way here – it is a labyrinth of bureaucratic wastage.

Previously to my claim being decided, previous entries of my claim also ended up here. I have had to re-fill the original claiming form four times and each time it has ended up at Haywood House. It will now take up to four days for them to find it and restore the claim.

The big question is if Income Support was so quick to act. How come another division of Department of Work and Pensions could get it so wrong? Do they not communicate with each other and allow respective departments access to their information? My circumstances were not so different.

However, I will still have to attend the Summons which the Local Council has issued against me. This cannot be stopped, even though Job seekers Allowance has confirmed an affirmative decision - I am still not in receipt of it. So, the Summons and the Court Costs will still fall against me even though I have kept the Council informed.

Some may ask why not pay the Council Tax but would you pay for something that should be fully exempt. So therefore it is not my debt. The horrible thing is if the Court orders me to pay it, I will have to. I have a couple of young boys to look after and I cannot afford to suffer the consequences, even if it is not my own doing.

A Resolution

The 24th of October 2011, The Day of The Summons.

I was taken to a side room to discuss my case prior to my court appearance. My case was viewed sympathetically, I was told by the official to backdate a claim for the Housing Benefit and ask for special circumstances to be taken into consideration due to not receiving the Job Seekers Allowance owing. I did and I submitted a requested bank statement for the period which proved I had no revenue which under low pay entitled me to the seven missing weeks of Housing Benefit. Once in receipt of this benefit I also was exempt for Council Tax, so besides receiving payment I also had the charges and court costs dropped.

The 12th of December, 2011

I received a letter after a phone interview days earlier, telling me that the missing seven weeks of Job Seekers Allowance had been paid into my bank account. I checked and sure enough - it was. Just in time for Christmas and a little bit more in the stockings for my boys who persevered too.