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Apology from ESA Referral Team Leader
This is the somewhat inadequate letter of apology received from Sally Partridge of the ESA Referrals Team of which she is the Team Leader. This is the woman who made many promises and kept none - the whole sorry saga (so far) is recounted here. I find it worrying that I have had to go through so much stress and unpleasantness to keep receiving all these apologies in writing which follow the verbal apologies which are always prefixed with 'I can only apologise .....' but surely that is not the case? Surely there is something more that they can do so that they do not need to apologise or hide behind the apology for their own incompetence or to avoid highlighting discrepancies in the systems they have in place. Why does no-one review these systems and in particular why not the templated letters that they send out!
I've just had another look at the content and query why this person would write 'Once again' followed by 'I would just like' - it seems apologies are an easy option and MEANINGLESS!
A Curiosity from my Member of Parliament
A reprimand is never nice to receive and at the end of the day I don't believe this one was warranted. I have ample proof of the insensitive response from this MP to my second request for assistance who had not reminded himself of the original request for help and under the circumstances I find that pretty unprofessional behaviour. I am aware that shortly before I received the 'form' this MP had publicly informed everyone that the boundaries of certain constituencies were to be changed this reducing the number of MPs for the area. So, unhappily for this person it would seem that he found himself in a position (like so many others in the UK currently) where his employment future seemed very uncertain. Mindful of that, I would still expect a higher standard of professionalism than was displayed in this whingeing e-mail. Still .... give him his due, he got his assistant to contact the DWP by e-mail which was then forwarded to me:
Satisfaction Guaranteed - do me a favour!
So what we have here is a promise from the JCP Lincs Notts & Rutland District Communications (the secret e-mail department) to reiterate that they had made a pig's ear with regard to the form that should never have been sent - they even use the word 'error'! Now, apparently their system will ensure that I won't receive any further forms - no-one has actually let me know that! They are going to ask me if I feel my health has improved and if so they will take one course of action and if I feel it hasn't they will take another.
This all sounds great but is it real? Or do they talk nicely to assistants of MPs and nastily to claimants. Just imagine, if my age retirement date had not been tampered with, I wouldn't have another two years of this to look forward to!
And as to the penultimate sentence 'We apologised to Mrs Ludlow for the upset we have caused and she is happy with the outcome of the call.' - Do I sound happy? Am I creating this web-site for fun?
PostScript - After this exchange I thanked Liz Kelly by direct e-mail and advised her that I had 'unfriended' Mark Spencer on Fb so that neither of us felt tempted to make public any comments in relation to this encounter - I have lost my faith in Mark Spencer.
Anyway - it's 6th December, St. Nicholas Day which I hope will bring everyone some cheer so I'm putting them to bed until next year when I am sure something else will happen and I can't actually see it being positive but I'm not going to worry about it now!
Page updated : 11th November 2016