Hi all
I'm starting to wonder if BDCs actually exist or whether there is one giant telephone somewhere in the bowels of the earth which all BDCs calls are routed to....it's only purpose being to ring out for several minutes and then cut off!

The one at Carlisle doesn't seem bad so far - i even spoke to someone on the Income Support line the other day who actually knew their stuff!!!

I'm worried now that this will be famous last words!

"...in the bowels..."

yes

'I am pleased that this service will now be available to everyone, significantly improving the way that people can claim benefits.

I believe that this change will encourage people to get in touch with us to claim the benefits they are entitled to as well as receiving help in getting back into the labour market.'- Jim Murphy

are they totally lying to him or what?

as far as i can see birmingham is in meltdown.

Reminds me of the bad old days of the 80s... but with added e-mail! Now you phone in your query and if you're lucky enough to win the lottery that is telephone answering.... they email the appropriate section because the info on the computer isn't enough to answer anything other than the most basic questions!

BTW jj when I did finally manage to get through to someone....they were in the West Midlands and couldn't help me...so it was back to the drawing board.

"I believe that this change will encourage people to get in touch with us to claim the benefits they are entitled to as well as receiving help in getting back into the labour market.'- Jim Murphy" Dunno what bleeding planet this joker is on...as me old Mum used to say....believe all you're told and you'll eat all you see!!

mums know best. : )
judge us on public services, Blair said, and what a mess...gordon brown might after all turn out to be named after the colour of his trousers...

i remember the 1980's...

Leaving aside the crapiness of BDC's in general, and the "newspeak" utterances of the current ruling clique who govern us.

We've been having similar nightmares with both Chippenham and Exeter BDC's, but through the likes and hard graft of Sam a welf at Dorset CC and Mike "NAWRA" (Shermer), and the local DWP partnership manager Stuart (an ex DM) who has really made an effort.

There have been improvements, particularly customer service type direct contact details, and he's sorted out a protocol/enquires wotsit with the relevant contacts for both Dorset/Somerset, which means we can bypass the switch board impasse. Which means we can talk to people who will get things moving on clients cases/queries etc.

Its not perfect but then BDC's are dire, but compared to before when e.g. phoning Chippenham BDC meant long painful hours of waiting and then a very very unproductive conversation, it has done wonders for various Welf's sanity.

Anyway to get to the point (i think by now i've forgotten it)do you want a copy of of the protocol? If only to use it a negotiating tool to get your local BDC to give you direct names and phone numbers etc, oh we also used copies of letters from Matthew Nicholas head honcho communications/PR man telling JCP managers to rebuild local liaison with welfs etc to encourage local JCP managers to engage with us too.

Yes please, that would be very helpful. marg.byron@btinternet.com or fax 0151 443 4641

Marg

Marg
Would be most grateful for a copy, as in Notts. both our BDC's are operative & the public lines are continually engaged, so as advisers with no time to hang around, a direct line would be useful

Ivan Smith

The 80's ...AAhhhhhhhh

Extra weekly amounts for baths, domestic assistance and such like. Taking photographs of end houses for appeals for heating additions. A whole range of single payments including gardening tools and maternity amounts twice as much as they pay now. Detailed(though contestable) lists of reasons why you could'nt have Attendance Allowance. Claim forms for mobility allowance an A3 sheet. On the downside about 6-7 different income tapers for rates and the dreaded Housing Benefit Supplement,

But,you could pick up a phone and speak directly to someone who knew what you were talking about and resolve it in minutes.

So much for bloody progress

andy, yes please, that would be great.

thanks : )

jan

Its in the superinformation highway wotsit winging its way to you both, i'll email you the matthew nicholas letters too.

Benefit Delivery Gatekeepers? Should we call Ghostbusters or Lady Chatterly? lol Sorry for being flippant, cheers for the info Andy

i know what you mean!

jj, mentioning the eighties and gb in the same post actually sent my mind back to 1978.

D'you remember Jilted John's one and only chart hit?

For some reason the refrain keeps on buzzing round my mind....

Thanks for putting that song in my head!!
I saw GB speak in Manchester in the 80s....as part of the Red Wedge tour. The words passionate and integrity sprung to mind......Im a terrible judge of character!! I soon wandered off to watch Billy Bragg

lol! you're bad...

btw - they're recruiting in birmingham - permanent jobs...in the deafening silence from the BDC i assume that's a sign that rock bottom was reached.

i remember the birmingham offices being closed by indefinite strike action in the 80s, starting in Handsworth, where the troubled BDC is now located, along with Oxford...

i'm not going to dwell on what theme tune the PM presumptif will earn for himself - who knows - the Stranglers 1982 hit is up for grabs - looking unlikely unless he gets a lot of help, and your tip is a sure bet for the Sun...Bob Marley's 1978 'Exodus', i hear was just voted album of the century by whoever...more to my taste...

and talking of movement of the people, did you hear John Cruddas launched his deputy leader bid from a community centre in my home town wednesbury (famous for unreasonableness) for a modest 31 quid, which is more like it...?

we're jamming...

jan

Handsworth, reminds me of Steel Pulse (my sister got me into one of their gigs in the late 70's when i was 13/14, i think it was Oxford Poly, for a boy from the tip of Cornwall, a big awakening) and there album Handsworth Revolution. As for Billy Bragg, he's come a long way since the red wedge tour, lives in a very salubrious cliff top house in west Dorset, beautiful views - Portland Bill to the east (chesil beach) an amazing lime stone massiff and Start Point to the west errrrr thats Devon and obviously the glorious azure waters of Lyme Bay.

Suddenly i feel a despairing internal rant coming on about social justice and environmental degradation within the UK.

Steel Pulse are Gods.

The first British Reggae band to be taken seriously in Jamaica.

Jan,

Surely not the stranglers' "Strange Little Girl"?? lol

Jon Cruddas MP.....nice principles, shame about the name!

Marg

methought jan was thinking of Golden Brown...(not Posh's pet name for Bex)

jj? Jilted John? Coincidence? I think we should be told...

lol! enough already...

i worked it out that since my TU is backing john cruddas, i am open to being accused of being a quasi-luddite cruddite...

Can I be the first person to mention the incomparable Stackridge on Rightsnet?

My God, if that isn't delving into the realms of obscurity I don't know what is!

I'm only guessing but are we talking Peak district or Pennines or a contender for the deputy leadership of the current regime in power.

I think we've left those far behind and are continuing with a musical theme.....see what BDCs do to normally well adjusted advisers!!!

On the 0800 number -

Jim Murphy said:

"Last year we piloted the 0800 number and the feedback we had from customers was very positive. I am pleased that this service will now be available to everyone, significantly improving the way that people can claim benefits."

I queried the pilot & feedback and have been referred to the following report (if this link works)
Evaluation of the Standard Operating Model new and repeat claims process review pilot

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2007-2008/rrep421.pdf

The report was carried our by ECOTEC and is quite complex - i'm saying nothing about Jim Murphy's "very positive", but thought people might be interested in the recommendations in Chapter 5, in which this was said -

"Overall, the pilot highlighted that resources and capacity at each stage of claims processing should be reviewed as a priority if the
SPR pilot is to be fit for purpose."

i wondered if anyone knew whether any review has been carried out or is underway?

the report lists many recommendations for contact centres, jobcentres and benefit delivery centres, and i would have thought that internally, this must be quite a significant report...does anyone know if anything is likely to come out of it, besides the 0800 number...?

Out of curiosity, why do DWP always put the following disclaimer on reports they commission -

"Views expressed in this report are not necessarily those of the Department for Work and Pensions or any other Government Department."

We had the 0800 number for some time before it went live across the country, but no one mentioned it was a trial or pilot or whatever.....

that's government for ya - slippier than a snake-oil greased ice-rink...

when i rang the 0800 number they asked for the post code - then gave me another number to ring for birmingham - so i GUESS birmingham hasn't been 'rolled out' yet...(knocked out, more like it...)

not that a little thing like that has stopped brum issuing the 0800 number and not the birmingham number...uuuuhhhhhhhh...

i do think it was misleading not to tell...

they've now built a wall around themselves and pulled up all the ladders. the organisational structure is a mystery, and contact details are guarded secrets...

i can remember the days when 'a dim view' would be taken of any omission of extension numbers from any forms or letters...a 'dim view' being a civil service euphemism for a fuzzy non-specific threat left to the imagination but understood to be metaphorically on a par with a couple of weeks in Abu Graib or a hefty whack upside the head with a piece of 2x4...

serves me right for being of a certain age... : )

Further info received from the SOM team -

"The changes brought about by the Standard Operating Model New & Repeat Claims Version 2 Project were successfully implemented across the country by 23 May 2007. No resource savings were attributed to the changes as such. Rather, the intention is that the changes will make it easier for local managers to meet operational targets within resource allocation, together with an improved experience for customers.

The resource and capacity reviews referred to in the report are for local managers to carry out on an ongoing basis once the changes have had time to "bed in". I do not expect that the reviews will be undertaken formally - I simply envisage local managers having more flexibility to move staff around in order to meet targets and pressure points as the need arises."

Also goes on to advise that a formal review of the effectiveness of the changes is planned for November of this year - reporting around February 2008.

so - more tea, vicar?

jan