Torsten Bell, the pensions minister, is expected to update the House of Commons on the saga on Thursday. He is understood to be furious at how chronic failings have been able to reach this level.
The State is not good at doing things:
National Savings and Investments is set to pay out £400m to customers following a missing savings scandal first revealed by The Telegraph.
The savings bank is in discussions with the Treasury to repay some 37,000 savers whose money is understood to have been misplaced, after failings dating back years.
And yet Torsten will continue to insist the State should do many things. Badly.
Puzzled by this idea of ‘ misplacing’ money. I mean it isn’t in shoeboxes is it ?
I recently dealt with NSandI about my late mum’s estate and also about my own account. They were excellent and efficient.
About 25ish years ago Siemens took over the IT at NSandI. People I spoke to there, said that the systems improved dramatically and that most of the operations were moved out of Blackpool and to places like Glasgow and Sunderland. They still had the problem of the old employees whom they had to keep on and were a bit… thick.
Siemens Business Services were sold to Atos, who then lost the contract to IBM about 8 or 10 years back. The first thing I noticed was that they massively buggered up the website. It was a bad start…
By dedicating 2 hours daily to this online job, I brought in $16,453 last month. It’s incredibly simple to start and doesn’t require any specific skills, making it perfect for anyone. For a student like me, this has been the ultimate solution to balancing my studies and finances…
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For More… Rb.gy/axcdam
The only difference to the Post Office scandal is NS&I lacked the power to send its customers to prison for being difficult. If they had I’m sure they would have used it for an easier life. Client kicking off about their money disappearing – have him arrested.
The Right need to invent a new law to impose on the Public Sector should they ever get in. Something that will invert the power dynamic between private citizen and public body. Something that would allow the private citizen to get easy redress from the Public Sector, possibly the individual employees personally. Or perhaps the idea that if a public body gets sued then all the employees in the organisation have to fund all the litigation and any settlements from their wages (and pensions). So the taxpayer is no longer on the hook, those doing the job are. The NHS pays out just over £3bn/yr in medical negligence claims and legal costs (I don’t know if that includes their own legal costs) and the NHS wage bill was £82bn. So every NHS employee should get an annual 3.5% pay cut until that figure is zero. Or separate it out into NHS health board areas, then the bad ones get more of a cut, the good ones less.
The Left have used ‘enabling acts’ for decades to empower the State (Equality Act, Climate Change Act etc etc), its time the Right did likewise.
The NHS pays out just over £3bn/yr in medical negligence claims and legal costs (I don’t know if that includes their own legal costs) and the NHS wage bill was £82bn. So every NHS employee should get an annual 3.5% pay cut until that figure is zero. Or separate it out into NHS health board areas, then the bad ones get more of a cut, the good ones less.
I got this idea a few years ago from a Cato institue proposal for the USA, although I wouldn’t be surprised if someone like the IEA has also proposed it ….
AIUI currently the NHS covers all medical malpractice insurance and it is proposed that this is transferred to individuals with the NHS covering the standard cost. If the costs increases then the individual is responsible for all excess payments.
As well as saving money it has the advantage quickly identifying individuals who have a higher risk. This may be because they take on riskier operations, in which case the NHS can help with the extra payments, or it may be because they are incompetent and need further training or sacking.
Torsten Henricson Bell (he dropped the Henricson because double-barrelled names aren’t sufficiently echt for the Workers’ Party) is the sort of person who represents a large part of what’s wrong with this country. PPE graduate, flitted between the Civil Service, SPAD work, opinion columns and think tanks, never had a real job in his life. Thinks he should be in charge of everyone because he’s never done anything to have the arrogance of adolescence beaten out of him.
Many such cases – Yvette Cooper (and Ed Balls), Millibrain, Bunty Minton Beddoes, Oliver Kamm etc. etc. There are decent enough PPE graduates who aren’t famous, but the country as a whole would be better off if we barred all of them from public life.
At least it’s not Torsten Hypnotits Bell.
“the country as a whole would be better off if we barred all of them from public life.”
Line them up and shoot them would be better. Pour encourager les autres so to speak.
A perfect illustration of how a sensible government-if there is such a thing-won’t cure the deep rooted problems that exist in this country was displayed to me when I had to renew my driving licence due to a chronic medical condition that I’ve had for ages. The deadline was the end of February, so I started the process in early January. As the end of February approached, I rang the DVLA to check on progress. It only took half an hour to get through to the right person only to be told that if it wasn’t sorted by the end of February it didn’t matter because if anyone checked on me I just had to quote section 18 of some Act which stated that if the DVLA had started the process it didn’t matter if the licence hadn’t been issued. So the public sector are protected from gross incompetence by law, which obviously ensures that said incomptence and inefficiency will occur. And there will be no penalties or punishment for it.
I’m surprised they are that sensible. I would have expected them to warn you sternly that you must not drive once it expired, never mind that it was entirely their fault.
I can’t access the article, so how the big hairy fuck did they manage to misplace £400 million?
Stolen, by any chance? Or merely resting in someone’s account?
The usual?
AIUI it’s dormant accounts, a problem which many banks, building societies and life assurers share. Collectively there are billions in accounts belonging to people who have died, or simply haven’t accessed them for decades and the paperwork has been lost. NS&I seem to have been particularly unhelpful in responding to requests, though.
Thanks! So it’s not actually lost, just in a digital pile of bags in the NS&I cellar, with things like “this belongs to Dave from Swindon” written on them in fading biro?
Pretty much, Norman!
Oooh, does anyone know more about this? I am attempting to administer a relative’s estate and someone is sure that there is about 10k missing. NS&I, who are putting the usual Kafkaeseque impossible roadblocks, like needing original paper bank statements in place, are denying everything.
Also, does anyone know why the UK has such fucking backward “ID requirements”? I have to do this to the bank that has me on file as a customer for 40 years for the same administration. Again, “we want a paper utility bill. No not that utility bill, that’s from the council, it has to be electric or gas. PDF no we can’t accept that. An original paper bank statement is OK” “When did your bank last ever send anyone a paper bank statement???”
I’ve offered proof of my address via my ID card, a fucking court summons, the property register (notarised extract with apostille if you want). Germany has the most anally retentive ability to locate where you live and none of it is acceptable in the UK, instead I have to get documents that haven’t existed for decades because some KYC list from 1994 no longer reflects the real world.
Also it’s fine to flash a passport at someone in Bangladesh via webcam (how secure!) but try going into a branch to do something and you are met with utter cluelessness. I would assume by now the proportion of branch work involving non-routine queries rather than granny cashing a cheque for her pension is approaching 100%, and yet the ability to deal with it is lower than ever.
The State can’t even keep track of how many Premium Bonds granny has, yet still wants to run an all-encompassing Digital ID system.
meanwhile, in Spudland
“…three weeks ago, when I admitted to being fatigued. It turned out I almost certainly had Covid at that time”
Must be the 25th time he’s had it.
I wonder how many jabs he’s had too?
And also yesterday, a petulant outburst about comments:
[I ask] that more care is taken before posting comments. You are asking to use my time.
He’s spending four hours a day obsessively moderating – ie censoring -comments, and the strain is getting to him.
Bell reminds me a of a famous nutter but I can’t place whom. A top Nazi? A serial killer? Any ideas?
How about Quisling?
I mean Q as a young man not as a middle-aged grumpy-guts.
I don’t know, I’ve never Quiselled…
…thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress. Try the fish!
Jimmy Savile? Something about the manic gleam in his eye…
He looks like a younger version of Jeremy Hunt. The same mad stare in the eyes.
It’s not a nutter, but he does have an air of Tintin about him.
The arse-badger quiff doesn’t help. Is his wife a beard?
Meanwhile, Just Conservative Things:
Crispin Blunt’s chemsex parties informed government policy, court hears
Former Tory MP pleads guilty to possessing crystal meth, GBL and cannabis at Westminster magistrates’ court
It explains so much.
So, a “crispin blunt” is where you replace the tobacco with meth?
Might as well, eh?
It’s considerably cheaper.
Fucking Rock On!
More of this sort of thing!
And what a name! Crispin Blunt.
Almost as good as Quentin Crisp.
Serves him right for taking the drugs into the court. Oh, now I understand, it was just a badly worded statement.
” . . . whose money is understood to have been misplaced . . . “
This phrase is just . . . marvelous. Artful. Legendary.
Sure it wasn’t ‘resting’ in another account…..