Councils plan to use lie detectors.

[stardust_john]

On the bbc web have your say and happened to notice a debate as to wether councils should use lie detectors to assess clients claiming benefits. On one hand I see the if you have nothing to hide, why worry and then I have this scream inside of me, which knows how hard it is for me to call them anyhow and the stress I feel doing so. Knowing that the social security and councils do make mistakes about people, I worry that anxious 'fruit cake' me would find the paranoia takes over and therfore people rightly entitled to benefit would either not claim what they need, or stress be picked up as fraud. I feel this is a bad move and considering how many hurdles one has to jump to claim what they say we are entitled to, I feel it will put people off reclaiming.

I know they have to cut down on fraud but this new bum move puts the fear of god into myself as I know mental health varies. What if they ring on a bad day, will they know I'm vulnerable or will they just stop money. Some of the coments on the site from people stating claimants are akin to scum, is what bothers me.

Rant over but what do you think am I just over stressed as usual.

[MilkTrayMan]

Originally Posted by stardust_john

...what do you think am I just over stressed as usual.

No, I personally don't.
(...Even peeps who are comfortable with the use of a phone sometimes baulk when having to leave a message on someone's answer machine/voicemail.)

I hate having to talk over the telephone at times myself, especially when there is NO way of knowing whether or not the person at the other end is actually writing down the correct details etc.

It's been a while now since I have had to sign on the dole etc, but I understand that the use of the telephone (...if U can ever get through...) has become a lot more common when Claiming for different Benefits.

I'd much prefer to deal with someone face-to-face, even if it meant an 'all day camp out' in the various Council/Benefit Offices.


...


P.S. ...Have U had a look at the Consumer Health Forums to see if you could perhaps share how U manage your anxiety, so that other peeps may find a mutually supportive Thread to help them too??...

[Fuzzgin]

I used to work in fraud detection for an insurance consultancy. I remember a rival company trying out lie detectors and worrying about it. The thing is, it's a machine. I know that's stating the obvious, but a machine doesn't know or care if what you are saying is stressful due to some illness or trauma. A person on the phone (if they have any humanity) can understand that and should be able to identify a baseline reaction to see if it's just one area (the lie) where stress is shown. I don't believe that a machine can. Of course there's a risk that a human won't be encouraged to and of course it can be hard to identify the "baseline" if a person is vulnerable (and as I am now) phone phobic.

bad idea, really bad idea.

[stardust_john]

Another example was when the phone rang and it was the benefit centre offering advice, nothing wrong in that just that half way through conversation, she asked was I drunk because of my slurred speach and I had to point out as best I could I had just been released from hospital after a bad seizure. She said oh your epileptic, I didnt know that and she had my file infront of her. It was a genuine mistake and she apologised, just it shows they automatically jump to conclusions when they could have at least read my file. To be honest they assessed me and upped my benefits so they were trying to help. I would just prefer they did more house calls than ring and maybe if caught at the wrong time, they might not think i'm peed!!! I had bitten my tongue very badly and it does seem funny now, I'd have prefered to be piddled, only takes me one can of guiness so I have to be careful.

D'you know what really gets me? When pleading with the police to offer my father a lie detector test to prove 'something' happened years ago, I was told my mental state would affect any court case, I was told no, it would be against his human rights!!!! I was told to move on and he apparantly had the right to refuse one. Seems if they want to introduce such methods on benefit issues, people wanting to persue court cases should be given that right as well.