As i'm sure some of you know I have been having horrendous problems with the Benefits system. In my case it seems to have taken an intervention at no lesss that the office of the Head CEO to finally get this moving.
While waiting for this to sort itself, I have investigated the problem more thoroughly and have found I am far from alone. Thousands of people are in the same position as I am. The problem with the system appears to lie mostly with the creation of BDC's (Benefits Delivery Centres). Just Google the term and read the shameful statistics and disgusting stories I have come across: Shop-floor staff who are completely untrained, a lack of supervisors/managers on the floor at any time, lead times of over a month on sending a simple form and the most disturbing is the way that letters and hard copies of sensitive information is dealt with.
In my own case I have now sent a copy of urgently needed evidence TWICE for it to 'dissapear' both times.
The truely shocking fact is that when you send your sensitive info to them it is in reality opened by the POST OFFICE staff (who as we are all aware help themselves- they sure as heck do in Portsmouth), stuffed into sacks and taken to the office. On more than 1 occasion these sacks have been lost; in one disgusting case on the centre of a busy roundabout!
I have submitted a petition for the attention of the Prime Minister requesting a complete and all-encompassing public inquiry into the running of the UK's BDC's (yes I dont do things by half). If you have EVER had problems with any centre regarding any benefit, heres your chance to be heard.
Visit
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BDCinqiury/ and have your say!
Thanks for reading this rather long post.
