It is my opinion that standards of behaviour by companies and organisations are permanently damaging the collective health of the UK.

Not enough people talk about 'maladministration'. The UK is riddled with it yet there is very little that can be done to punish offenders unless they happen to be private individuals.

My personal experience is that every organisation I have dealt with in the last 5 years has attempted maladministration to the effect that they gain or save money and I lose out. This includes:

The Police and the Independant Police Complaints Commission

The Open University (accounts dept.)

The NHS and its appeals service

The DWP

The Council of every Borough in which I've lived

Every private landlord I've used

Every letting agent I've used

Every bank I've had an account with

Every telecommunications company I've had a contract with

The Community Legal Service

South West Trains

The Citizens Advice Bureau

I can't remember any more but I've written them down.

The practice is encouraged by the refusal to make people accountable for maladministration. Each employee needs to hit their target and this is almost the only criteria for promotion. Employees therefore act in an amoral way secure in the knowledge that the only way that things will change is if a tenacious and effective individual has the endurance to force the matter before someone impartial. Then the decision is overturned and the employee is informed of their error.

The only way to avoid injustice in such a society is to behave like a psychopath obsessed with accumulating money. This is exactly what all companies now do. Aquisitive people are adapting en masse.

Recently I attended the court regarding council tax. I was surprised to discover that four council employees were using the court room for 'meetings'. I personally heard a council employee tell a disabled old man a pack of lies to get him to hand over money for council tax which he should not have been liable for. A bit later a pregnant woman was almost in tears. In each case the council employee was interested in only one thing... 'securing a payment'.

Our children are the unhappiest in Europe. Our Adults probably are too. I read about someone having agoraphobia from debt. I have, for a few years, had a feeling where I freeze at the thought of doing any administrative work. This includes even going into an office to hand in a letter or opening my post. I manage sporadic periods of energy but these are countered by long periods of paralysis. In person I'm intelligent and articulate but this counts against me with regard to getting help. The NHS use a system of referalls for assesment combined with 'lost' post and 'mistakes' which mean that they can claim they are 'dealing' with a patient whilst in fact doing almost nothing; and somewhere a civil servant cuts costs and gets promoted.

Sorry if this reads like a rant but really, no one wants to know. I know I'm not the only one but I think that some people don't realise that society is having this effect on them.

What I would like is some sort of guidance on how to get media attention for this, particularly Lord Nolans recommendations regarding punishment for maladministration.

Any suggestions or advice gratefully received.

I know exactly what you mean.

I used to work for British Gas, and part of my job was to check accounts that had money owing on them before the ball breakers stepped in.

The accounts were inaccurate to say the least, if it wasn't so serious it would have been laughable.

I found that on one team of 50 people, they all worked in completely different ways because they had been trained by different people. If you can imagine that 1 person trained 3 new people, each trainer taught them in different way to different regulations, you can just imagine the trouble. None of the trainers work was checked.

I noticed this and decided to investigate. A good quarter of the accounts that were being handled was down to pure lack of care / knowledge. I can't count how many accounts were put right once the team knew what to look for, and about 45 of them didn't before I had to show them, not good in a team of 50, and the same fault cropping up time and time again.

Everyone worked to targets you see, it takes time to check for everything. We sat for an evening and did every account as it should be done. The company gave us 2 minutes to check an account - it took 5!

I don't know what I could suggest and I have no advise, but as you say, in this world of targets, commissions and bonuses, we are all ****ed!

Anyone seen the film The corporation? It suggests (and I agree) that the corporation is designed to be a psychopath, no morals, no conscience, only its own self interest to guide it, pompous, full of its own self importance... need I go on? This doesn't explain public authorities which are also acting in the same way. My local council is as bad as any.

I think that approach is spreading as a business model. Most people will participate in bad practice if they think:

i) they only play a small part

ii) they are acting on a higher authority

Therefore appaling treatment can be dished out to individuals if the guilt is spread over many people.

People assuage their consciences by saying 'I was only doing my job.' The guards at Auschwitz said a similar thing.

maybe this is a discussion we could open up on www.consumerhealthforums.co.uk ?

I think that approach is spreading as a business model. Most people will participate in bad practice if they think:

i) they only play a small part

ii) they are acting on a higher authority

 

Therefore appaling treatment can be dished out to individuals if the guilt is spread over many people.

 

People assuage their consciences by saying 'I was only doing my job.' The guards at Auschwitz said a similar thing.

Things have got to be bad if the likes of me are rising up! I was one of the most apathetic souls you were ever likely to meet. I have turned into an angry tyrannosaurus since showing up here though. I was actually a scared mouse when I first arrived. Thanks again to Tom8 and Josie8 who first helped me. I'm still not right in the head and my family is pretty much in the clear now. I'm just well past caring. Now that is both good and bad. It's good because you're just insensitive to everything, but bad because that isn't the best way to be for mentally moving on. This whole consumer debt saga is just a big F*** UP! Why didn't the government do something? Incompetence or corruption? It makes my blood boil. Oh I forgot! They nationalised Northern Rock! Nice one Sherlock!!!

It''s also embebedded in the 'professionalism' that some firms like to tout as their 'strength;being 'nice' and 'understaiding their clients/customer base isn't good practice... it eats into profits to have properly trained staff, not an outsourced operation which comes in once a year.

Again outsourcing is another pain, this is why companies can state that they don't have any long term debts they haven't acted on - they get sold on at a fraction of their 'true' worth, the company claims back the tax on the debts, and sometimes gets paid for the same debt twice over.

Also with outsourcing the problem is no longer being monitored at director level, they can state 'our agents are working on our behalf via their own companies rules and regulations'.

Need I go on anymore?????

I used to work for a high street bank, and I couldn't agree more... it's so easy for them to say they're a professional business and the like, but in the end they're just in it for their own profit/losses. Best bet is to not let it rile you, especially with outsourcing. I had to deal with a bank for various reasons recently, all of their callers were cleared outsourced, I just forced them, each time, to allow me to speak to someone who I could understand. In the end, just be a bit brash, they're required to contact you and confirm you understand the situation you're in, if you make clear you can't understand they have no leg to stand on. Worked a charm for me!