The Department of Work and Pensions have decided that I am no longer alive and have not paid my pension for two months - this despite the fact that I returned their Life Certificate form by registered post at the beginning of August.
Oh well, here starts the hassle of proving they´re wrong and that I haven´t popped my clogs yet. The form was properly filled in, signed and countersigned by a witness of professional standing in the community. The only instruction I didn´t follow was to return it in the buff envelope provided, I used a proper airmail envelope otherwise it would have gone by surface mail (sea!) and God knows when it would have arrived.
I fail to understand why, in this day and age, they are relying on the postal service for this type of contact. Nowadays documents can be scanned and sent by e-mail instantly, or photographed and sent by cell phone, also instantly. I can´t be the only pensioner living abroad in a country with a poor postal service, it is time the Pensions Department moved with the times.
I am writing to them to hopefully sort this problem out but in the meantime I shall continue to moan. Watch this space!
This makes my blood boil for you. We both hope that you can get this sorted quickly - at least they will have to back date everything. Not much help though if you are dependant on the regular payments going into your Bank.
ReplyDeleteWendy (Wales)
Thank you Wendy. It is so frustrating trying to sort this type of problem out by post, especially when letters take a month (or three!) to arrive.
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