The Revenue Can't Count!

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

HM Revenue and Customs didn't order enough paper. These guys are supposed to calculate my taxes!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/8659918/HMRC-runs-out-of-paper-leaving-hundreds-of-thousands-of-people-without-tax-reminder-letters.html

Of course, once upon a time they really were just "the Revenue" and maybe that's part of the problem.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Huh? If you send out millions of paper forms every year, don't you outsource this to specialised companies? Where I worked, we had Xerox Company simply in house, to take care of this sort of thing. You know they understand paper and ink and print times . Food was done by a catering company, so we didn't have to read up on how to make bread crunchy and prepared to food safety laws. Etc.

[PanzerJaeger]

I was sure this was going to be about the debt deal drama in Washington.

[HoreTore]

How is this relevant to anyone?

Is this "criticism" actually serious....?

[Strike For The South]

Find Clerical error
Topple government
???????
Profit!

[Louis VI the Fat]

How is this relevant to anyone?

Is this "criticism" actually serious....?

It looks silly. The job of the Revenue is to count and calculate and numbercrunch. Yet an apparantly simple task such as counting the amount of paper needed to send tax reminders around is firmly beyond their grasp. Like a chef who fails to bake an omelette properly.


Apart from silly, let's see what happens in Britain if it is an ordinary person who fails to send a form to the government in time. Instead of the reverse. I'm waging that for that you get send to the coal mines in Wales for twenty years.


Wait, Thatcher closed these. Maybe instead they force you to walk around in sheep's clothes or sommat, don't know. Or exile to Scotland, have to try to survive in Glasgow.
They're brutal on those islands, brrr....nasty punishments abound, I've been told.

[HoreTore]

"firmly beyond their grasp"...?

I'm getting the feeling you're playing devils advocate here.

Everyone knows that every single large organization on the planet will screw up their orders from time to time. That's life. While I agree that the government is an exceptionally good administrator, even they will gt things wrong from time to time.

That people are all up in arms about a single, completely irrelevant mistake from the government is proof of its exceptional administrative skills. If the government had actually been bad at governing, this case would've been a small issue nobody cared about.


Oh, and quit the hyperbole. You're not getting skinned if you hand in papers late. I myself paid my car tax around two months overdue this year, without any additional penalty whatsoever, in fact I never heard a word from them. Every other company fines you when you go over 2 weeks.

[Centurion1]

The government isn't a company at least so far as I am aware. And yes most countries do skin you for paying your taxes late. The penalties can often be quite steep.

[HoreTore]

The government isn't a company at least so far as I am aware.

And this is relevant how?

[Centurion1]

And this is relevant how?

"every other company" The syntax of your statement implies you think the government is a company as well.

[HoreTore]

"every other company" The syntax of your statement implies you think the government is a company as well.

"every other organization" then, doesn't change anything.

Though with the "wonderful" NPM, much of the government is now run like a private company, with the expected increase in inefficiency and bloated beauraucracy.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

"firmly beyond their grasp"...?

I'm getting the feeling you're playing devils advocate here.

Everyone knows that every single large organization on the planet will screw up their orders from time to time. That's life. While I agree that the government is an exceptionally good administrator, even they will gt things wrong from time to time.

That people are all up in arms about a single, completely irrelevant mistake from the government is proof of its exceptional administrative skills. If the government had actually been bad at governing, this case would've been a small issue nobody cared about.


Oh, and quit the hyperbole. You're not getting skinned if you hand in papers late. I myself paid my car tax around two months overdue this year, without any additional penalty whatsoever, in fact I never heard a word from them. Every other company fines you when you go over 2 weeks.

Replace "paper for tax forms" with "bullets for infantry" - which has also happened. The point is that this is a simple yet very serious error which should not be allowed to happen, and which is becoming increasingly common. It simply is not acceptable for the bean counters to miscount their beans. It means that at HM Revenue and Customs the Right hand doesn't know what the Left hand needs to do it's job, and this from a department that already has an administrative backlog.

Oh, and in normal circumstances you most definately would be skinned, to the tune of 10% if memory serves. It's also worth noting that the Revenue is notorious for pursuing and punishing people who argue against its decisions, they will litterally hound you through the courts until you are bankrupt.

[HoreTore]

Replace with "no milk in the grocery store" - that also happens quite frequently, due to order screw-ups.

Stuff like this should not happen, yet they are bound to happen. Anywhere, at any time. You can try to minimize it, but they will always happen no matter what you do.

Accept it and get on with your life.

[Louis VI the Fat]

"firmly beyond their grasp"...?

I'm getting the feeling you're playing devils advocate here.

Everyone knows that every single large organization on the planet will screw up their orders from time to time. That's life. While I agree that the government is an exceptionally good administrator, even they will gt things wrong from time to time.

That people are all up in arms about a single, completely irrelevant mistake from the government is proof of its exceptional administrative skills. If the government had actually been bad at governing, this case would've been a small issue nobody cared about.


Oh, and quit the hyperbole. You're not getting skinned if you hand in papers late. I myself paid my car tax around two months overdue this year, without any additional penalty whatsoever, in fact I never heard a word from them. Every other company fines you when you go over 2 weeks.

I think you fail to grasp the seriousness of this case, the magnitude of the impact of the Revenue etc's mistake. This matter means the final straw that broke the camel's back. Government in England shall be reduced to a bare minumum. The rest of Europe will follow suit, starting with teachers. It is that serious.


Clearly, you don't understand Britain at all. This video will enlighten you:

[HoreTore]

Brilliant!

Anyway, what happenednto the paperless society that the 90's promised us?

[Centurion1]

Brilliant!

Anyway, what happenednto the paperless society that the 90's promised us?

people secretly hate trees.

[InsaneApache]

I've played gully ball. It's great game.

She's wrong about Leedshire, it's north of Yorkshire. Otherwise a very informative vid.

[Strike For The South]

+1 on youtube Women

They liked to be called women right? Makes them feel empowered, all that nonsense

[rory_20_uk]

One court case I have had to do.

The court lost the set of notes.
The agency that had to do a different report forgot to do it. They then had to ask again for the contact details as they lost them. Twice. Don't worry - proceedures have been put in place (unspecified).
Delay so far: 6 months.

Anything done: nothing. Reporting is probably technically illegal as it is an ongoing case. One small case, this much of a screw up.

Another way to look at this: when the Civil Service were negotiating with GPs for their payment by results they thought that 60% of targets would be met... What organisation besides the Civil Service would expect 60% of targets? I can only infer that this is the level of efficiency that the Civil Service manages.

They were then shocked when GPs on average got 98% of the targets, and hence a lot more money than was expected.

There are only a few stories about governmental inefficiency as most are never reported.