Civil Service Still Blaming Covid and Working From Home for Poor Service and Long Delays
MPs and members of the public have demanded that civil servants stop blaming working from home and the Covid pandemic for poor service. MailOnline has more.
Those ringing Government phone lines are waiting on hold for as long as two hours at a time to speak to someone who can help them with basic requests.
One NHS radiographer had to take four days of annual leave and spend a combined 20 hours on hold to confirm that his payment to HM Revenue and Customs had been received.
A Daily Mail audit of 38 official phone lines, carried out over two days, found long wait times, baffling menus and broken systems were the norm.
We had to wait for up to 54 minutes or were simply cut off, directed online and forced to use paid-for lines costing around 23p a minute from a BT pay-as-you-go landline. Some departments buried their contact numbers on their websites.
Four organisations contacted by the Daily Mail, used by families and small businesses, blamed Covid or working from home (WFH) for long wait times and poor service. The civil service has faced accusations that working from home is still hitting productivity four months after ministers ordered staff back to their offices.
Last night Tory MPs said it was “outrageous” that millions pay tax but get “nothing in return”.
Bereaved families said they had to wait on the phone to the Probate Office for as long as an hour, while staff are taking four weeks to read emails. A Mail reporter waited 54 minutes on hold last week, which would cost £12.33 from a BT landline.
The Office of the Public Guardian, which manages powers of attorney, told customers WFH “is impacting our response times” and said they should “wait at least 20 weeks before contacting us”.
A Mail reporter took 48 minutes to get through, costing £11.19.
Some people don’t want the lockdown perks – and excuses – to end.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Perhaps Whitehall staff are too busy pushing the latest fashionable woke causes to provide a decent service to the public. The Telegraph reports that the Civil Service now recognises dozens of genders and one mandarin was told in his performance review to spend 5% of his corporate working time in a “non-binary network” with a suggestion he attend a “gender non-conforming book club”. Other initiatives include:
- A World Afro Day to raise the problem of “hair bias against Afro hair”.
- A ban on the use of the word “crazy” because of the offence to those with mental health problems.
- Advice to no longer use terms such as mother, father and ladies and gentlemen in documents and emails.
- A Trans Day of Remembrance for victims of transgender violence and a Transgender Day of Visibility to celebrate being transgender.
- A Bi-visibility day to raise awareness of “bisexual and biromantic erasure”.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
We reap what we sow.
If we spend billions paying people not to work, we shouldn’t be surprised if they get used to not working.
In any case, further proof that the state and its bureaucracy is not there to serve us or help us. It’s a self serving monster that feeds at our expense.
It sounds like we’re heading for the old East German state of things – ”We’ll pretend to work so long as they pretend to pay us”.
Let’s face it, anything run by the State is completely useless.
No, I can’t agree! Completely useless? Hardly. Anything run by the State is extremely damaging AND extremely costly!
Yep. Worse than useless. Much worse.
Gotta love those downticks!
It depends where you are, of course, but I wouldn’t say that “anything” run by the State is “completely useless”.
State libraries in Australia provide reading, films and music to be accessed on site or borrowed; offer free internet access to those who don’t have their own; and host children’s groups. Many provide free business and community advice which has genuinely helped people.
A sweeping generalisation.
‘Civil Service Still Blaming Covid and Working From Home for Poor Service and Long Delays’
Well, they would, wouldn’t they?
Not just the ‘Civil’ Service either. Many private companies blame ”the high volume of calls” for the delay in answering. Obviously, they’ve never considered that it’s worth employing more people so that they don’t lose custom. I always give up on any private firm that doesn’t bother to answer a call within a minute or two.
“Last night Tory MPs said it was “outrageous” that millions pay tax but get “nothing in return”.”
Right. That’s what has been happening with the NHS for the last 2 1/2 years and apparently it is the new normal. At least my GP says it is. I think she still gets paid though, so at least their payroll system works, that’s something to be grateful for, I suppose. We’ve also got a prime minister who has decided to spaff £billions on waging an undeclared proxy war on a nuclear superpower, on whom we are reliant for food and fuel. That’s something else to be cheerful about as we PAYE our taxes.
Last night Tory MPs said it was “outrageous” that millions pay tax but get “nothing in return”.”
A touch of pot and kettle if I might be so bold.
FFS!
My wife asked about whether the NHS could provide some sort of service – nurse replied, you’d have to pay for that. To which my wife responded, Oh – I’ve been paying for the NHS for 40 years.
Nurse shamefaced.
Haha! I eventually after a couple of weeks received a reply from my dentist about my 6 monthly checkup. I’m booked in for 5th April 2023.
They can still cancel. I’ve had three appointments cancels in the last 18 months, most recently they cancelled my May appointment and told me to phone to reschedule…for the new year.
Same to be said for EasyJet and Dover Port?
We have a choice as to whether we use EasyJet or Dover Port. If they aren’t good enough, we take our business elsewhere. Try that at the Passport office..
My husband and I applied for mutual POA’s in June 2021. One was eventually finalised last week, we are still waiting for the other one. The OPG had the stupid idea of sending us a feedback form (around 6 months ago). Oh how we enjoyed giving it to them with both barrels, which was probably pointless, but still.
As for the NHS, I feel we no longer have a medical service, other than that which we are willing to pay for (and I include dentistry in that). I am reconciled to the fact that if either of us collapse with a stroke or heart attack we will more than likely die where we fall.
Oh well, look on the bright side. That would spare you from seeing the further destruction of the West by Western politicians.
Every cloud and all that.
It’s not just the public sector: a similar pillar to post effort to get a query dealt with by the car insurance company. No doubt much the same WFH story applies, but this insurance claim has made me aware how one isn’t making a contract with an insurance company, but with a whole series of interconnected shell companies owned by some faceless corporation somewhere.
A reminder that there is no real division between the state and the oligarchs now – both operate hand in glove.
Last Autumn I contacted the ICO (which is of course a government body) to make a complaint about NHS England for their clotshot harassment. I received the automated acknowledgement that they had received it, but nothing more for 8 months, at which point they emailed to say that they were rejecting my complaint because it wasn’t advertising and therefore the complaint wasn’t justified, and sent me all tbe blurb about rules on advertising. It was fine for government bodies to send ‘necessary’ communications for public health purposes as that’s a separate data processing justification. I replied pointing out that I knew all that and had not claimed that it was advertising, and that the level of bullying and harassment went well beyond what was acceptable. They replied quickly this time, repeating the claim about ‘necessary’ communications and suggesting that as bullying is not their remit I look at legal options. I replied to that pointing out that it was not reasonable to claim that it was ‘necessary’ to repeatedly harass people to do something which they were under no legal obligation to do, especially when repeatedly asked to stop, and that was the basis of my complaint. I also pointed… Read more »
Truly, The Law Of Unintended Consequences!
‘Unintended’???
Coronavirus: All Covid entry restrictions scrapped from June 1 | Cyprus Mail (cyprus-mail.com)
Crazy
“bisexual and biromantic erasure”.
I really loved my biro and had it nicked in the second form in 1972
Why has it taken over fifty years for me to be recognised as a victim
But can you prove that you actually owned one? That it was nicked, rather than you lost it or swapped it for a copy of “Men Only”?
But, of course, nothing factual or provable is required these days, so you are entirely free to “identify” as a biro theft victim, if you so “feel”.
O, tempora, o mores!
You nasty biromanticphobe
You have no idea how I have suffered. No idea how many nights I cried myself to sleep
Now my pain has been officially recognised you say it’s all made up, how dare you
Give me your name I’m going to report you
Know what you mean, I ordered a purple lidded wheelie bin for metal/plastic/glass recycling last February from Shropshire council and was told that it would be delivered in May; fellow sceptics will not be surprised that “said” bin did not arrive.
Rang Shropshire council to enquire why and after 30 minutes was informed that “I can’t understand why but your address wasn’t on the list” but you might get one in July or perhaps September.
The person I talked to was obviously WFH; a good clue is when you are told:”I will have to check with another department or speak with my supervisor/superior” and you are put on hold for 5/10 minutes when they use another line to speak to a person from another department or speak to their supervisor/superior who also are WFH.
Just throw the stuff in the road outside your home
Yep: I had to phone HMRC to sort out a tax f**k-up. 50 minutes musak before getting an ‘adviser’ who clearly didn’t have a clue about my issue; then put on hold twice while she tried to understand the issue only to ‘accidentally’ (?) drop the line. £10.53: thanks for nothing HMRC. I’ve now written, but hold out little hope!
By contrast, if it’s a question of extracting money out of you with menaces, that bunch of ne’er-do-wells are faster out of the traps than a greyhound on speed, or indeed, a poxed monkey up a tree.
I had to sort out an error on our VAT account, and did it through the HMRC webchat. Okay, it was painfully slow for a simple matter (35mins), but they did do as I asked and fixed it same day.
Don’t be surprised at any delays. I found out recently that they were sending out letters with their old office address showing and then when they sent another letter with the correct address they added a paragraph advising of their new office address; helpfully explaining that use of their old address could mean mail was not received. Obviously the muppets haven’t come across the Post Office’s ‘Track & Trace’ system. And don’t get me started on all their constant ‘submit your tax returns early’ messaging. It’s an approach suggested to HMRC by the ‘Nudge Unit’. Reprehensible, illegitimate offspring.
Neither civil nor sevile.
A cush job, no worries about failure and because of echr employee protection laws and bullet proofed contracts, even if you do, you just can’t fail. No worries , nor redundancy, rock solid pension, exes, regular sickies and hols galore. The civil service, now they require their cake wfh and all. The government caves in to it and the more ground hmg concedes to the public sector unions, then the surrender becomes total. It is, an administration gone way out of control and laughing sneeringly at the taxpaying public. Something needs to give, I feel. Sunak and his necromancers in the treasury are working on it, as is bunter johnson and diligently.
From a contributor to the ‘Notalotofpeopleknowthat’ website I wholeheartedly endorse the term ‘Snivel Serpents’ as the collective noun for these lazy good for nothings
Call centres, whether privately or publically run are atrocious and were so long before the lockdown. Customer service went out of the window with digitalisaton. A complete rethink is needed but I guarantee that there will not be one.
“biromantic erasure”.
Who T F thought that one up? What an absolute cracker. That is 100% civil service speak. Whoever is laying claim to this piece of crap talk they will be angling for a doubleplus good in their annual appraisal.
This is the shyte we are up against.
The Civil Service are correct. It was a virus that locked us down, not the Government.
As. Was that the same virus that DIDN’T lockdown Sweden?
Or a different one?
I make a point of never phoning or using the internet to contact official bodies, councils, electricity companies or whatever, snail mail letter every time. Take a copy, send it registered or tracked. We need to keep this formal method of communication open, just as we need to keep using cash. HMRC – no way am I ever wasting my time phoning these inept incompetent barstewards, letter by post every time.
Here’s a thought. It shouldn’t really matter where people work, if they’re managed effectively and their purpose is clear. My experience of working in the public sector is that there was very little managerial skill going on before lockdowns came along, and the whole wfh phenomenon has highlighted how utterly useless public sector managers really are. Unfortunately, they won’t be performance managed because their own managers are equally awful at managing people and their work. That’s the real issue to be sorted out – if public sector workers get sent back into the office, their managers will be able to disguise their lack of ability more easily again.
Only 18 minutes to get through to HMRC, they got lucky. I had a tax demand saying owed money and rather than pay it monthly I wanted to get it out of the way. Now you’d think that when you please the button to say you want to pay tax you’d be put straight through, but no. I waited for over 40 minutes on two occasions and gave up.
If public servants don’t do as they are told, sack them. That’s what would happen in the private sector. If they go on strike, sack them, it won’t make a difference as they do sweet FA anyway.
Just put them on notice if they refuse to return to work. Surely they can be dismissed for unauthorised absence?
A point of detail. The planning inspectorate are a private sectors organisation. They use to be public sector but we’re privatised in the last decade.
If all people working in these places refused to comply with this ”gender” or ”bias” nonsense, that could only be a good thing.
Allow them to work from home e if they forfeit 20 % of their weeks pay for each day working from home. Try that for a fewmonths and see if they’re happy. Then sack themand outsource their work to a place where they’re willing to work in the office fir 40% of the salnary for a full week’s work