Chapter eighteen
DEALING WITH BUREAUCRACY
|
|
Chapter eighteenDEALING WITH BUREAUCRACY |
|
Telephoning tips
Emails
Letter-writing
Filling in forms
Complaining
Allies
Further information
"Quite often the obvious sources of help seem to be programmed to 'fend off' and 'fob off' so that at the moment when the individual is most in need of help and at his/her most vulnerable — he/she comes up against the horrors of bureaucracy and the result can often be DESPAIR!" (younger person with arthritis, YPA)
First contact with an impersonal bureaucracy like a benefits office, the social services, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or the Department of Health (DH) can be alarming. So it helps to know something about how they and 'the System' operate. Remind yourself, too, that caring officials do exist. Some try hard to interpret rules and regulations in the most humane way possible:
"Once past the impudent switchboard operator and the apathetic Duty Officer — the Occupational Therapist, Home Care department and the Social Worker have all been perceptive and helpful. My Social Worker makes me laugh too — which is a terrific bonus!" (the same YPA)
If you're unlucky enough not to winkle out any humane officials, do remember there are plenty of caring and informed 'allies' around who can help (for instance the Patients' Association, Citizens' Advice Bureau (CAB), helplines within Arthritis Care, within NASS for people with AS, within the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS), Lupus UK, Raynaud's and Scleroderma Association, and legal advice services (see chapter 15).
It's easier and quicker to pick up a phone than to compose a letter. Straightforward queries might get a quicker answer on the phone. A call can be followed up in writing, to ensure important facts like names, dates and other facts have been correctly understood. For tips on overcoming physical difficulties in phoning, see chapter 20.
Before phoning get clear in your mind what you want to ask and, if possible, whom you need to speak to. Be sure you're phoning the right place and asking for the right service or person. Perhaps chapter 15 can help? Or try a quick phone call or visit to your local library? Or an internet search? Or the free Benefit Enquiry Line, 0800 88 22 00 (textphone 0800 24 33 55), in Northern Ireland: 0800 22 06 74. Maybe you can save money by using the Say-no-to-0870 website, which lists cheaper alternatives to 0808, 0844, 0845, 0870 and 0871 numbers for many well-known companies.
Jot down some notes to help. What happens when you get through? Bureaucracies have big switchboards or impersonal call centres. No one seems to answer your endless ringing. This may just mean there's a stacking system, where your call has been put into a queue. So let it keep ringing and keep your place in the queue. If instead the number's engaged, put the phone down and try again, without pausing. Again and again, so that your call leaps into the queue as soon as a line's freed, and before any other call sneaks in (the 'last number redial' button makes this easier).
Or you do get through but are kept hanging on for ages. Could you call back another time instead, when lines are less busy? One or twice I've managed to get straight through to a bank official by calling in the middle of the night, but that only works if they claim to have a 24-hour service, and is rather an extreme example! Or try sending an email instead if your query's short and fairly straightforward.
When you do get through ask the switchboard operator for 'general enquiries' if you've no idea who to speak to. Don't waste your breath going into too much detail to the operator or first person who answers. Keep it brief, eg 'I'm phoning to ask about Home Help services'. Homework beforehand helps, for instance if the switchboard operator at the college or university is flummoxed when you say 'I want to ask about access to courses', instead you'd know to ask for the adviser for students with special needs, or student services officer/college counsellor.
You might be confused by having to speak to several different people. The first person you speak to may not be the one who actually ends up dealing with your query. At the social services department, for instance, you'll find yourself speaking first to a duty officer/intake person. They'll refer your query to a specialist section or officer (eg home help organiser maybe, or the children's resources team for information on child-minders, or elsewhere for queries on disability aids, community occupational therapist (OT) or chiropodist). You may end up being referred to several sections/officials!
Keep costs down by asking if they can call you back if the answer's not readily available. Make sure you get the name of the person you speak to (write it down) in case they don't call back or if you need to call again.
Don't assume a particular official knows everything. Or will tell you everything! For instance, no one told one mum (writing in In Contact) that the 'limited hours of study ruling' didn't apply to her son. Because she discovered a particular clause in the benefits rules herself, her son (with ankylosing spondylitis) was able to study full-time and still get his benefits.
Your homework can also uncover lesser-known wonders outside the statutory services like, for instance, the British Red Cross escort scheme, where someone will accompany a disabled person on a journey, or drive them to a hospital appointment.
When talking to officials, keep to the point (jotted down beforehand). Don't assume they can read your mind or see what's invisible and needs explaining (so often the case with inflammatory arthritis). Be firm and gently persistent if necessary but avoid being rude: it only antagonises and as likely as not s/he hasn't made the rules and regulations. Speak to officials as if you expect them to behave as civilised human beings and, hopefully, that's how they'll react. Keep a note somewhere (eg in your Infokit, see chapter 15) of the date you phoned, who you spoke to, and what was said. Some benefits will be backdated to the 'claim date', for instance the day you first requested a claim form, so do keep a note.
If the first official you speak to is unreasonably unhelpful, find out who's next in the hierarchy. In benefits offices, for instance, your first contact will probably be the counter clerk. If you're not happy with what s/he says, ask to speak to the supervisor or the office manager, who has a wider knowledge of the law and policy and may be the person who has made the decision.
Ask the agency/organisation you're dealing with for their comments and complaints leaflet, or a leaflet on how to make an appeal, if that's more appropriate. If you still feel your claim's been handled badly, write to the district manager (keep a copy). Above the district manager try the Chief Executive of the relevant agency. And seek advice on whether or not to appeal to an appeal tribunal. Remember you can get help from outside 'allies' like the CAB, a disability organisation like DIAL, a patient support group, a local councillor, or your MP. Sometimes you just have to keep at it.
Emailing is a good way of making a short, simple enquiry, or asking for a form or leaflet to be sent to you. And you can use emails as 'chasers' to check what's happened to an earlier written letter or phone call. Keep a copy in a computer folder. Copy your email to anyone else you want to keep informed (a 'blind cc' can be useful).
But you may just get a standard, non-personalised email in reply. Instead, sending a letter may be more effective for anything detailed or complicated or really important.
Sending a letter has several advantages. You have time to think about what you want to say and how best to say it. No one can butt in while you're speaking. It gives the recipient time to give you a more considered and more informative answer than if you'd phoned. Letters can be kept as evidence if there are misunderstandings or if things go wrong, and they can be copied to other people for information. Copied to the boss or local councillor or MP, they can be a powerful way of speeding up inaction!
For tips on overcoming physical difficulties in writing, see chapter 20. Spend time and effort composing your letter.
Christopher Ward wrote a whole book on the subject! How to Complain. Here's just one helpful extract:
"Cock-ups are often the result of a simple human or mechanical error. A clerk forgets to make a note in the order book. A secretary takes a week's sick leave to go on holiday with her boyfriend, leaving a memo about your lawn mower in her Kleenex drawer. A pleasant telephone call or letter to the right person will often sort out the problem in minutes. No need for threats, angry letters, telegrams to the managing director."
If that doesn't produce results, however, you have to escalate the complaint.
"Write to A's immediate boss 'B' asking him to sort out your problem. Mention A's incompetence, by all means, but don't let it become more important than your original object — getting your lawnmower back — or you'll get a letter back apologising for A's sloth, but making no mention of your mower."
If you still don't get anywhere then you have no alternative but to take it to the top.
"The bloke [or blokesse!] who employs all these cretins might hold the title of Managing Director, General Manager, President, or Chairman. Find his name and title from someone on the switchboard and also his business address if there is a head office.
"When you write or phone, be scrupulously polite and reasonable. He will already be looking for someone to blame, and if you come over as yet another aggressive, difficult and unreasonable customer, his sympathies will be with his incompetent staff and not you."
The basic rule with complaints is that the method you use should reflect its nature or severity, while being dealt with as near to the point of origin as possible. The remedy may be simple. By keeping calm and firmly polite, you're more likely to get the problem sorted out right away, rather than being condemned to "return to the bottom of someone's in-tray because they don't like the tone of your voice" (Christopher Ward again). Annoying, but true! Send in any written evidence in support of your complaint. Here's where keeping copies of letters and emails and forms comes in useful. Quote references, dates of letters and phone calls.
Your local Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) or the Patients' Association can advise you how to register a complaint about the NHS, or your GP. The system's complicated. If you've a complaint about a local authority service complain first to the department responsible for organising that service. If that fails to produce results, ask for a leaflet about their complaints procedure and/or complain to your local councillor or MP, and/or write to the local newspaper.
'The System' can be exasperating or frightening and many people give up before getting anywhere. Try not to give up. Remember the 'allies', who can help us work our way through a seemingly impenetrable jungle.
Allies are mentioned throughout this book, like CAB, the Disability Alliance, NASS, NRAS, Arthritis Care or other patient support group, or the DRC, a social worker, a GP, your local DIAL office, the Patients' Association, Skill (on educational questions), the Association of Disabled Professionals (on questions of employment), MP, local councillor. Look for these and others in chapter 15 and chapter 3. Find out too how other people have coped.
Confidence can reach a low ebb when you're out of sorts and in pain and the bureaucrats who should be lifting the burden are adding to it. But remind yourself that you have the right to be treated as an intelligent, capable and equal human being, by anyone — stoney-faced bureaucrat/highly qualified doctor/whoever, and that you do have the right to ask, politely but firmly, for what you want. — Even if you may not always get it.