I had reason to contact The Insolvency Service in the week before christmas, they had asked me to contact them urgently under threat of all sorts of bad stuff, I had already contacted them on the matter in November by using the email address on the previous letter they had sent me, it was a named person on the email address so not just a generic one.

After the threatening letter in December I emailed them again and rang them on the number provided, I got a recorded message saying that they weren't taking incoming calls, (can you imagine any private business doing that ?) I also replied by post.

Then I remembered why they probably hadn't got the email - in my business dealings with the Employment Service I'd been told that any replies to a government email address from a non-government office went into a spam trap where it may or may not be released by an IT bod at some undecided date in future, they have since responded to my letter but not the emails yet.

So why put your personal email address on the letterhead if your email server automatically bins the f'kin thing ?



I just find it hilarious that the only people who think that the various departments of the civil service offer value for money and high efficiency are the people who actually work there, anyone else who has to deal with them soon realises the truth.

Shall we bring Damo and the Job Centre into the discussion yet or are we saving him for the final assault ?

You see now I know you are lying....

Not suprised. You're just sent round in circles with HMRC. You're supposed to ring payment support if you cannot pay. Payment support redirected me to the CT office. The CT office's number is constantly engaged. You ring payment support again and they say 'we cant do anything, you'll have to keep trying the CT office' blah blah blah.

I'd love to go work in HMRC's Castle House in Leeds to see what training (if any) the staff get and how they're taught to do it.

We dont need Damo on this one!

I took early retirement at leeds uni in september and although i have another pension from leeds city council which i am on basic rate on the small university pension i am also on basic rate income tax %22 over two months ago I filled in the forms they asked me and ive heard nothing since.They must owe me a bit now I'm going to give them a ring today

Jeez! This is like reading the Daily Mail!

As you correctly guess I am a civil servant and there are a few numpties in the service albeit far fewer than when I joined 15 years ago. I can't speak for HMRC, DWP or DSS but I can speak for Cabinet Office, DCLG, DFE, and DECC. I work with Councils, Emergency Services, Health, Utilities and the Military who've all got good things to say about us and colleagues. In a previous job I know a large number of companies with good things to say about the Foreign Office from my time there.

Sure, there are some poor performers as there are in all walks of life. Businesses go under all the time too but they never seem to get the flak devoted to public servants. Neither the private or the puiblic sector is perfect nor does either have a monopoly on doing "real work".

I rarely get on my high horse but I take this lazy generalisation and prejudice personally.

You can see though that the perception of those departments who deal direct with the public, ie those that we see the machinations of, is dreadful cant you ?

Everyone who has contributed to this thread has reeled out stories of personal experience, none of them have mentioned Daily Wail stories, your generalised dismissal of these personal experiences is lazy and prejudicial.

I can continue reeling about the wonderful, cost-effective HMRC if necessary?

I am full of admiration for the private sector professional individuals who are spending their working day posting their thoughts on public sector workers on a rugby Internet message board.

I bet these lazy good for nothing public sector workers aren't spending their working day as productively are they, except for Bullseye, of course.

How about the nice people at Santander who sent account statements to the wrong people? Or KPMG who can't accurately audit company accounts? Or Skype who can't keep their service running? Or Clydesdale bank who can't add up someone's mortgage payments correctly? Or the Terminal 5 baggage problem?

It's not just the public sector that c0cks things up.

Artthur Anderson
Halifax Bank
Northern Rock
Lehmann Bros
Bank of Scotland
Haliburton
BP

Our servers are all down. That's my excuse. A useless private sector company runs our IT. Ask GrimRhino about em.



This never happened when we ran our own IT, oh no!

It doesn't matter Sam, you'd just be sat around all day drinking tea, doing the crossword and giving people inaccurate advice whether they were down or not.

That's how the public sector "works", according to the overwhelming body of opinion presented by all of three people on an internet forum.

Course, any attempt to defend public sector workers by a similar number of people who have experience of working within it can be dismissed as not representative or prejudiced without a trace of irony.

You accepted any empty boxes to get the goods into this years budget this year Andy ?

Not my job Gary - I'm in that great wide world called the private sector now and have been for the last three years. Somehow, despite comments to the contrary on this very thread, I seem to be surviving...

Same here

I'm dying to have a moan but HMRC have never once ballsed up my tax. Useless f00kers.

Yes, I am pretty cheesed off that I've received a good service from those pesky HMRCers whenever I've had dealings with them as an employee or on behalf of my employer

Must do worse

If you both send me your National Insurance Numbers I'll let you share my fooked up tax code repayments.

All they need to do is ring 01236 785057 and see if they get a response.

Probably five grand each would do it.

PM me with your bank accounts guys and I'll fill in the direct debits for you.

if we can all skive we will do. even if it the private or public sectors

i know someone who works for a well known retailer and if it is quiet they have been known to watch channel 4 deal or no deal come dine with me and coach trip in the afternoon. on saturday they spent the time watching leeds and football focus sod the punters

Sam, again as for Andy, I'm sorry if I've offended you with my position on this issue, however that doesn't change the experiences I've had on a number of occasions with HMRC.

I have no doubt whatsoever that there are a whole number of reasons why the people working in the Middlesbrough office of HMRC are unable to help me with my queries due to a lack of Training / Management Support / IT Systems, although there is no excuse for the attitude they take when telling you that "any issues are the responsibility of the individual", when all you want to do when calling them is correct any inaccuracies or omissions (usually on their part) so that you are paying the correct amount of tax.

Again of course these same issues occur in the private sector probably as regularly, however the point I would like to make, and that I believe that McF is also trying to make, is that in the private sector there are far greater consequences of poor performance for either the individual or the business. It appears from their attitude that there are still significant numbers of people working in the public sector who do not sufficiently appreciate that they are working in a service industry, and as such need to support their "client" rather than either ignore them or attempt to belittle them.

I'm sure that there are very many supportive and knowledgeable people working in the public sector (just like the private sector) but unfortunately until the front line of pulbic facing personnel are "re-educated" to provide a positive experience for the members of the public with which they interface, the "good guys" will continue their work largely unseen...

Write to them. Its too hard to explain (and get through to) someone with the skills and permissions to alter a PAYE Coding notice or a previous self assessment.

Just don't email them, it will never get there.

The Civil Service is fantastic in some respects, I worked for them for 4 years straight from school, and in the last year I reckon I must have had about 20-25 days 'special leave with pay' to play Rugby League for various teams, dept, region, the civil service national team, including a trip to avignon for a week or so to play some french representative team, all paid for except beer money.

I suspect such trips have long gone though, but they were fun when they lasted.