Watchdog admits her shortcomings
THE Bristol woman in charge handling complaints about the government has admitted her office had "taken its eye off the ball".
Ombudsman Ann Abraham told the Commons public administration committee that the unit "had a bad year last year" after it emerged it took five times longer than the guidelines to process complaints.
But changes have now been made to management systems, she said, and rules on the kind of cases she could investigate had been tightened up which meant she now took on fewer but "more meaty" cases.
The committee was also told there have been problems finding and recruiting staff and the lack of experience has had led to a backlog of cases. Ms Abraham, from Cadbury Heath, became the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman in 2002 and was previously the Legal Services Ombudsman.
She said: "I didn't see it coming and that's been a serious and great concern to me. I want to be exemplary and I'm well aware these are not exemplary results. I can only say it's my absolute intention that we'll do better by the end of this financial year."
3 Comments
by Alison, Portsmouth, England
Monday, November 10 2008, 7:17AM
“Actually, in correction, I was referring to the Adjudicator's Office under Dame Barbara's guidance, as my dispute fortunately never made it far enough to the Ombudsman, common sense giving way. These departments tend to be confused in claimants' minds, probably since they test all cases under Tax Credit Office guidance and therefore become virtually indistinguishable from the organisation whose work they are checking! Surely this is a case of HMRC acting as judge and jury in its own cause, with even the so-called independent reviewers of their work not being independent? What we really need is proper consultation with CLAIMANTS and claimants' groups (Tax Credits Casualties) to properly reform the 'system' and make it safer and fairer to all.”
by Alison Myers-Ward, Portsmouth, England
Monday, November 10 2008, 6:38AM
“I agree with Robert, and was underwhelmed with her service in my tax credit dispute - which I have since won WITHOUT having to progress my case from her lousy office to the Ombudsman. She agreed HMRC had made multiple mistakes in my case, and had given no explanation for lost correspondence, assigning the wrong gender to my life partner, or repeated zeroing of my salary, yet still expected me to pay back £600-£700 (I was never told one single amount as no-one seemed to know). She ignored last-minute evidence from my new financial Adviser that they had under-calculated my award! They work out of the Tax Credit Office under HMRC rules biased against claimants, yet claim independence! The whole thing is just a farce, and I am glad this has now been highlighted in the Bristol News!”
by Robert, Bristol
Sunday, November 02 2008, 4:32PM
“I had my case dealt with by this department,andi sent a letter to say i wanted my case to be dealt with by her office, and that i was waiting for a freedom of information request, to come through from the HMRC, to back up my appeal,and yet they dealt with the case without even seeing my eveidence, i complained to Mrs Abrahams, only to be told they did nothing wrong,complete idiots ..as my letter conntained no evidence for my case,,another shoddy job done by her office..”