Categories: uncategorized
Date: 07 March 2007 22:50:02
How odd that two of Dave's cartoons should hit the spot in completely opposite ways this week. I thought I should tell you a little story to explain why, despite being equally up in arms about the plans to de-post-office people as Dave is, my comment on his cartoon was less than supportive, in a not-very-less-than-supportive way.
While sorting out my father's estate, we have had nothing but support and sympathy and help and cooperation from all the different businesses etc we've had dealings with, with just one exception. You've guessed it... the Post Office. If Esther Rantzen were still going strong I'd be writing to her to recommend them for a jobsworth award.
Dad had his attendance allowance paid into the post office and I used to collect it for him every few weeks, using the card system. When he died, I went in to report the death and close the account, but was told I could not withdraw the money that was still in there in case there'd been an overpayment (which there had been, as it turned out). We had to fill in a form.
We had made a mistake with Dad's Will in that he'd made my brother and sister executors and, although politically it was the right decision (and I was totally in agreement), we discovered to our cost that it'd have been so much better if I had been an executor because there were some occasions when I was the only one here. This was one such occasion. I had to fill in the form as "The person who notified the post office of the death", but the rest of the form had to be filled in by the executor who had to take the completed form, together with two forms of ID, to the Post Office. So I phoned my brother to warn him to bring the ID with him when he came to the funeral so he could go in the next day.
My brother lives in Scotland. It's rather a long way away from the Isle of Wight.
He was coming down for five weeks, during which we hoped to get all the paperwork finished. And we did. We now have nothing more to do... except get the £300 from the post office! My brother went straight in as soon as he could, taking all his ID and the completed form. Were they happy? They were not. He had to take in one form of personal ID and one proof of address. Working in the navy for the last forty years, he does not have a passport as such, he has a superior document issued by the government (Can't think what it's called, but it looks like a passport and has his photo in etc, just doesn't say "passport" on the front"). Will they accept it? They will not. He hasn't a birth certificate handy to show, so he's left using his driving license as proof of ID, even though the signature on it is so old as to be illegible and there's no photo attached.
Now he has a problem. He's used his proof of address as his proof of ID. Fortunately he has also brought a utilities bill. They use these as proof of address, so this should be OK. Were they happy? They were not. They were, in fact, quite the opposite. The address on the utility bill did not match the address on the form which he'd put as the address at which he should be contacted - which was, of course, my Dad's address. Apparently no, it was not possible to have the paperwork sent to Dad's address (the form we'd filled in was only the form to inform them of the death and request the paperwork to claim the money), it had to be sent to his home address in Scotland, even though he was not there to collect it and needed it here so that we could apply for probate. We were kicking ourselves as he could so easily have lied and taken one of Dad's old utility bills, seeing as both their names were the same! But no, they were adamant .... even though my brother actually owns half of Dad's bungalow. And was there at any point any compassion for the fact that my brother was so recently bereaved? There was not.
We came home and rang the helpline who were a real contrast - extremely supportive and helpful, just as a helpline should be. They still maintained, however, that it was not possible for the paperwork to be sent here, it HAD TO go to Scotland. We could not enclose a letter to explain the situation or anything. The address on the form HAD to be my brother's home address, proven, and HAD to be the address where he was located at the time. The bank were happy to send everything to Dad's address, where they were dealing with thousands rather than hundreds... the probate office was happy to send everything to Dad's address..... only the Post Office refused. So we pointed out that my brother owned half the property and that his name and Scottish address were on the deeds confirming that fact. The helpline person said that would be fine - we should proceed with that as proof of address and could quote him at the local branch. Perfect. So off my brother goes, produces the deeds of the bungalow, and explains that he's checked with the helpline. Were they happy? They were not. They grumbled and moaned and reluctantly agreed to accept it. This was on January 10th.
Two weeks ago, not having heard anything at all from the Post Office, and with all the probate and bank stuff sorted, I rang the helpline to ask if we had to send a grant of probate in order to release the money (£100 of which I had already had to refund to social services who informed me in a very polite and apologetic letter that Dad's account had actually been overpaid and they'd have to ask me to give them that money back), and the helpline said that I should get in touch with the office by letter and enquire on the progress of the matter. This I did.
Then, on the day that Dave's cartoon went up, I got a letter from the Post Office. And I quote:
Thank you for your letter dated 19th February 2007 regarding the closure of the card account at the Post Office held in the name of your late father. Unfortunately we are unable to complete this request for you because the documentation you submitted was incomplete, we apologise for any distress caused by this rejection, but for security reasons we need to receive correct and accurate documentation with your application.
I can confirm that we are in receipt of a completed Deceased ACcount Form, a copy of the Death certificate and details of your driving licence.
However we need sight of a second form of identification before we can close the account as we cannot accept the details of the land registry reference number as evidence of identity.
Please submit a copy of one form of identification from the list below to verify indemnifier identity:
Passport, Benefit Book, Birth Certificate, Marriage Certificate, Naturalisation Certificate, Recent Utility Bill, Rent Book, Mortgage Statement, Electoral Register, Current Council Tax Bill, Card Account Card.
As soon as we receive the copy of acceptable evidence, we can close the account and release the balance owing to the indemnifier.
Please remember to send a blood sample, retinal scan, fingerprints and a signed letter from your mother to ensure that you did not pull a fast one in convincing the probate office that you're who you say you are.
Thank you for doing business with the Post Office. Please remember to contact the government and tell them how incredibly helpful we have been."
OK, so I made that last bit up.
But you have to admit that on sensitivity they score rather low, on jobsworthness they score incredibly high, and one has to question how long they'd have left it before contacting us if we hadn't queried how far they'd got with closing the account. My brother is now, of course, back in Scotland and away working on the ferries. His birth certificate is here, he's not married and so the only proofs of ID on the list that he has are utility bills, and they won't accept those as evidence as it's NOT THE ADDRESS WE PUT ON THE ORIGINAL FORM!!!!