 |
| Ealing Town Hall |
My UK public service career began here in 1970 as a pre-graduate experience placement. In 1974 I joined Surrey County Council, moving on to Devon County Council in 1975 and to Dorset County Council in 1978 where dealing with “Social Services” was the biggest challenge. I left for overseas life and work in 1985, going to St Helena; Saudi Arabia, Malawi and Rwanda before settling in SE Asia working mainly in Cambodia. My profession and training is in “organisational development” and “human resources” - how to obtain the best performances from people. I retired from full-time work in June 2016, only to encounter maladministration at Northumberland County Council.
Update June 2022 - it seems I am not the only one to have misgivings about the way Northumberland Council was operating. Belated Vindication? Please see this article, latest update below and links to reports. The main report makes graphic and sad reading.
Please see the sequel to this blog and my website entry - the case for better public service everywhere also published here.
Bournemouth Dorset 1984
Mr Ricketts couldn’t believe his luck. He’d asked for a pay rise and got twice as much as he’d asked for. His trade union representative Mr Watson beamed approvingly: “Never” he said ”Never has his union won a pay upgrade by two whole grades”. Mrs Bicknell chairing the Appeals Committee addressed all three of us. “We don’t care what the rules are supposed to be. We are correcting an injustice and that is our job as elected Councillors.”
As the local authority’s management
representative, I was not surprised, although the rules were actually the law of the land at the time.
Pay rises were restricted, allowed only if bigger responsibilities had been
taken on. That was not the case for Mr Ricketts. It was though democracy at
work, for good or for ill, and how some of us do miss it.
Years later my experience at Dorset County Council was the
foundation for [trying to] introduce good governance in to public service in
Cambodia. One simple principle was
over-riding:
“You must consult people before making a
decision that affects them.”
Cambodia 1998 to now
Unfortunately the absence of this principle was and still
remains the case in Cambodia despite our efforts and official edicts otherwise.
Equally unfortunately it seems public service in the UK is going the same way
as the commitment to maintain public services has declined. It’s a pity as it
is just one more moral lead in the world that the UK is guilty of sacrificing.
Cambodia could do with the likes of Mr Ricketts. Police work and judicial decision-making
seldom rely on forensics. Mr Ricketts
was Dorset’s top Fingerprints expert and his painstaking meticulous examination
of finger-prints left at crime-scenes had convicted many felons beyond
doubt. He was rare, a civilian employee,
not a Police Officer. Successive
governments keen to reward Policemen had awarded them annual pay rises far
ahead of civilian colleagues. So Mr
Ricketts had fallen well behind. There
was an argument that our elected Councillors were restoring the status quo and
with it justice.
Now in Cambodia public service, it is invariably the other
way round.
Somebody important wants to change or upset the status quo, to change
things in their favour, adversely affecting other people. Often they are not consulted and in perhaps
the most common occurrence of land developments,
they are denied rights of representation, a fair appeal, and compensation.
Invariably those with most to gain are connected with the ruling party.
As we often relate to the wider world, corruption in Cambodia
starts before birth. Mothers-to-be pay informal fees for maternity and
child-care. Children do the same to
attend school. Few workers can gain jobs without
paying “commissions”; “facilitation fees” and extra financial inducements for
essential permissions and documentation.
So the process goes on in every facet of life until and including death - Yes - fees have to be paid to do that and to have funerals.
In recent years there have been NGOs and trade unions trying
to bring about a fairer more equitable society where any Cambodian appellant
like our Mr Ricketts (or his family) will not be punished for exercising
rights. Occasionally we even find a few
Mrs Bicknells, public officials prepared to do the right thing, but these are
indeed rare, almost all are afraid of a certain fate by doing so - a spectacular fall from grace for going
against “how
things work in Cambodia”.
Although “#Foreignaid”
is no longer as big an element in Cambodia’s national revenue, and contributions
from “The West” are much less now than from #China, the UK taxpayer is still
forking out for public services as he or she does in the UK. There is still some direct bilateral support
as you can see from examining the British
Embassy’s website. Plus until and unless BREXIT does occur fully and cleanly, a
big chunk is disbursed via the European Commission. In addition and less known are the many
multi-lateral and international agency contributions made via UN bodies,
World Bank, and the likes of the Global Fund for TB, AIDs, and Malaria, etc. So we do have a continuing future
interest as well as a past one to see our taxpayers' money is not wasted. (That is one of
the roles of the National Audit
Office and Public
Accounts Committee that have no real equivalent in Cambodia.)
I do regret that we have not done more to export and implant
the notion of a “neutral
public service”, and many opportunities missed to do so, as well as key
concepts of accountability with checks and balances through similar state
institutions. In recent years the UK has
been reticent to promote such ideas and human rights because of priority given to trade and not wishing to alienate
authoritarian regimes.
A few years ago after a three
decade career in international development and human rights I had my first
encounters with public service in the UK – with one notable exception** – since my
formative professional career from 1974 to 1985.
Northumberland UK 2016 to now.
The first thing you notice is how public services are under much less directly-elected member control, indeed some have been contracted out in
entirety. There have also been swingeing cuts in budgets since the Global Crisis of
2008, that have led to corresponding cuts in staffing and other “efficiencies”. One of
these is automation of administrative procedures, so decisions are conveyed
impersonally with follow-up actions pre-determined and set via computers unless overt action
is taken to stop it. My late Aunt who
was suffering from dementia received a letter from the debt collection agency
engaged by the local authority to enforce arrears of payment of Council Tax. She had failed to reply to notices that had
arbitrarily cancelled her benefits when it was “discovered” her sister-in-law was
living with her and "she had failed to disclose this material fact". That set in automatic referral to bailiffs as controversially is standard practice by Councils today. The problem was that the lady
did not live with her but abroad and had only used her address to receive and
collect her renewed driving licence.
"Fairer Share" suggests a better fairer way to fund local public services instead of Council Tax - video here)
◄ Fairer Share Council Tax website - please go here:
Now these may be just two personal examples but they are
precisely the kind of public service policy deficiencies that UN Rapporteur Professor Philip Alston highlights in his report on poverty in the UK. He did not go looking for faults but he found
them. He would have preferred to conclude that the UK was serving as a best example to the wider world. Instead our UK reputation is now tarnished,
compounded when followed by the exact same kind of official denial by the
government that circumspect regimes in other countries make against what are supposed to be
international standards and benchmarks by which all nations are judged.
Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: Normally in law the status quo is maintained pending an appeal. Northumberland County Council insists that its decisions must be implemented immediately, so any extra charges it levies must be paid straightaway. The money must be found! If not its automated defaulting procedures are invoked ending up with its debt collection agency, and of course ratings at credit agencies. If the status quo rule applied, it would be more likely to expedite appeals instead of delaying them. Indeed this policy is probably designed in the hope that people simply give up. In my case, despite several reminders sent to them, it was only after invoking the Council’s formal complaints mechanism that I received a response, appeal turned down (of course) – 10 months overdue.
Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: Normally in law the status quo is maintained pending an appeal. Northumberland County Council insists that its decisions must be implemented immediately, so any extra charges it levies must be paid straightaway. The money must be found! If not its automated defaulting procedures are invoked ending up with its debt collection agency, and of course ratings at credit agencies. If the status quo rule applied, it would be more likely to expedite appeals instead of delaying them. Indeed this policy is probably designed in the hope that people simply give up. In my case, despite several reminders sent to them, it was only after invoking the Council’s formal complaints mechanism that I received a response, appeal turned down (of course) – 10 months overdue.
Little wonder therefore that public service is suffering a
fall in the UK and in the eyes of the outside world. If that trend continues where will developing
countries be able to learn from? Will it deter the rise of citizen-friendly public services in the rest of the world - as in Cambodia’s case - from a very low base? If Cambodia copies the latest UK model, a leap
directly in to similar automation via latest Smartphone outreach, my fear is that it will mark the
end of “prior consultations” with people in person or groups, and no concept of local representative
democracy as some of us once knew it.
** The exception, my encounter with the Charities Commission is partly told in this blog. It led to my ongoing campaign for fairer more effective Foreign Aid.
One of the shocking developments of late in the UK has been the rise of and need for "Foodbanks". Poor people who have no other means go to them to feed their children, dependents, and themselves despite the UK having one of the most advanced state welfare "Safety-Net" provisions. I should be able to live reasonably comfortably but extra retrospectively-imposed Council Tax bills etc. did force shopping habits such as waiting for the last-minute drastic reductions on fresh food such as this still fresh salad from LIDL supermarket to just 20 pence. Apparently to live like this in the UK is "reasonable" and no hardship. (See "Valuation Panel" below)
Additional Notes
I was pleased to come across your campaign as the current system needs to be simplified. I do wonder how many there are out there paying too much and not having fair assessments or appeals, especially with millions of homes going into debt since the start of the pandemic. There seems to be major systemic failures.
Fascinating article by Colin Talbot posing the question "Who killed the study of public administration in UK?" I must confess I had not thought of this important aspect. I did of course study the subject as part of my Business Studies course and professional training though I opted for personnel management not public administration. It helps to explain the demise of public services.
Additional Notes
Updates
May 2023
Here we go again. Same situation, same council, but will sense and decency prevail this time?
June 2022
As added at the start of this blog. there are some astonishing revelations about the internal governance of Northumberland County Council in an investigation just released, Now this relates only to leadership and management involving both officers and elected members. It does not delve in to if the same shortcomings were found in dealings with the public. However several of the findings corroborate what I had tried to raise about the Council's governance. I am pleased to say the Council Leader, Glen Sanderson is revisiting them. It would be good to get the answer I never did from then Councillor Robbie Moore about how certain policies were adopted and if the powers exercised to officers were duly delegated with no recourse to elected members. The investigation does indicate that at times elected members and officer colleagues were treated with derision, the same feeling that I felt.
November 2021
Well Northumberland County Council has "done it again". It has out-of-the-blue issued a letter to me - but sent to someone else's address - informing me of something I am not aware of and arbitrarily imposed a suspension of my Council Tax discount. It is news to the people at this address and me that I have moved there. Will they explain? How long will they take to correct it and to apologise? (Scroll down to "6 Representations to the Local Government Ombudsman" below.
Remember that my appeal against their decision was not pursued by the Ombudsman because they convinced his office that they had sent letters to me notifying me of a right to appeal to the Social Entitlement Chamber. They hadn't but my word was not accepted.
4 November - whatever went wrong has now been put right thanks to DWP in Alnwick whose treatment and public service is in marked contrast to Northumberland CC's.
November 2020
"Fairer Share" a group campaigning to replace Council Tax has taken up my case as an example for deep and urgent reform. Please follow the link to see more about them.
One of our supporters, John, has shared his personal experience fighting against the unfair Council Tax system in Northumberland. He supports Fairer Share because he agrees that we need one simple, fairer tax system.
Dear Fairer Share,
My complaint is not just about the level of Council Tax bills, but also about the way councils arbitrarily make decisions and enforce them, employing automated processes that end up with debt collectors.
My first experience of Council Tax was when my late aunt—who was elderly and suffering from dementia—had her Council Tax discount benefit wrongly cut off.
Unfortunately, similar methods were also employed on me, despite being a pensioner on an income level that should qualify me for a Council Tax discount and housing benefits. I had helped my aunt buy her house on the basis that it would come to me after her death. When she died, it took us 7 months to sort out her affairs and carry out essential work to the house, so it could be brought up to the required standards and be lived in safely.
The council however, acted immediately to disqualify my Council Tax discount and housing benefits from the date the property title was passed to me. Its capital value was used to disqualify my entitlement even though it was a liability not an asset. The council made me pay the full Council Tax on the inherited house as well as the rented property I was previously staying in nearby. I was also made to repay “overpaid” housing benefits. The council and the Valuation Office both rejected my argument that paying two sets of Council Tax, plus paying back housing benefit constituted severe hardship.
My income as a single pensioner was reduced to far below the sum the government specified for pensioners to live on, ironically the same formula used to determine benefits in the first place. At the same time as they refused to alleviate the hardship they had caused, the council were giving out exemptions to private landlords for carrying out the same kind of essential repairs that I had to.
I was not only concerned about the money and hardship, but also the way the council behaved throughout.
October 2020
Please note this decision by the Valuation Panel in Durham to allow Dominic Cummings off paying Council Tax for his second properties.The Valuation Panel in my case confirmed the council's decision to make me pay full Council Tax on the property I inherited (even for the period when it was unfit for habitation while essential remedial work was made), as well as on my rented place, despite my income below the government's figures to live on.
Minor Update April 2023 - We visited "the scene of the crime". Very nice too. The Dom didn't spoil Barnard Castle - let's hope he doesn't Holy Island.
June 2023
Surely UK public service cannot be more marked and marred than by hefty payments given to get rid of badly-performing leaders? And they have no qualms taking the money despite it having an enormous impact on the level of services to people that they were appointed to promote not harm.
September 2020
* Interesting to see that very few people are taking up their option of full pension credit. The qualifying figure for a pensioner couple is now £265.20 a week which by chance is close to my combined pensions income, meaning I do still pay a small amount of Income Tax. As questioned in my blog above, what status does this figure have if officials can disregard it? Of course my question was never put to the Social Entitlement Chamber, was it?
August 2020
Two fascinating developments has arisen - or erupted - with Northumberland County Council the most dramatic of which is the suspension of the Chief Executive.
The other is the release of the Ombudsman's report in investigations in to the Council and the statement : "I would ask the Council to reflect on the way it implements remedies, with a view to providing us with more timely responses in the future."
Substitute "decisions" for "remedies" and you have the nature of my complaint from 2016 onward, never treated with respect, and of course not examined by the Ombudsman despite my request to do so.
It is an inescapable fact that there is one single recurring issue - the governance of the Council and its systemic lack of basic good governance procedures. Let us hope that there is now a full external investigation. See also Gazette report.)
2 Addendum January 2020
3. "Talking the Talk" in Cambodia.
As I freely admit,
the years away from the UK meant I did not see much of what went on there,
especially the fine detail. I have done some catching up.
It is clear that
apart from draconian cuts in centralised financial support of local government,
the range and levels of service have been cut; hived-off, and in some ways put
under greater central government control. I can see from James Downe et
al of Cardiff University that
external inspections in many sectors proliferated.
“....there is a
danger that local government is being ‘inspected to destruction and that this
is diverting resources from service provision, stifling innovation, lowering
morale and creating confusion”.
Indeed that seems to have led to local government senior officers being more accountable upwards and outwards to bodies controlling inspectors than in my days. Then the main accountability was to locally-elected Councillors who in turn were held to account by their constituents as well as local media and commentators.
Indeed that seems to have led to local government senior officers being more accountable upwards and outwards to bodies controlling inspectors than in my days. Then the main accountability was to locally-elected Councillors who in turn were held to account by their constituents as well as local media and commentators.
I can now see why
local democracy has been diluted to the point where representations made by
local Councillors not only go nowhere but are treated with disdain. I am truly
surprised by their lack of confidence, even impotence, and their lack of
command of the detail of both policies and their implementation governing
decisions. It means local democracy no longer works.
Now with “Housing
Benefit” being incorporated in Universal Credit and therefore administered by
DWP, it will only leave Councils with powers to decide on Council Tax discounts. That
is still important. They may they choose that low income and hardship are salient factors, as enlightened ones will, or not as those like Northumberland that have priorities other than the best interests of all of its residents including poor ones. Councils like this will continue to be able to impose
poverty.
It seems many will
also continue the practice of arbitrary referral to debt collection bailiff
services to enforce their decisions, so elderly pensioners even with dementia
will end up there.
The question yet to
be replied is “Will
the government’s figures for the sums people must have to live on be respected?" Will those minimum threshold figures govern decisions? Or will the rules be so sacrosanct that they must be
religiously followed, lest bosses and external inspectors find fault with
administrators?
Irrespective of
centralised or local administration the point is systems must work for
"clients" to be served, and there must be effective appeal and
redress mechanisms. If not there will be more criticisms from the likes of UN
Human Rights Rapporteurs that the system keeps failing them. Ultimately
clients, only after much suffering, pay
for failure with their lives.
2. The Finale
In most advocacy campaigns there comes a time when you must conclude "We've given it our best shot, got nowhere, no point in wasting more time and effort for now". In my case I tend to go further than most before reaching this conclusion - as seen with the complaint of poor Cambodian disabled people that we took all the way up to the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons.
It is evident usually well before that "the system" or the people in it are not willing to be moved, regardless of the merits of arguments. They find ways to dismiss or get round them. The most sure way is to bounce you back to someone at a much earlier stage of proceedings, so that you must start all over again.
A registrar at the Social Entitlement Chamber has just done that in response to my latest enquiry rather than answering my question as to what guidance has been given where claimants dispute ever having received due notice of rights of appeal - exactly what format must it take to be clearly understood as well as proof of delivery? I posed the question directly because one Ombudsman's ruling (in contrast to mine) reported that Councils must report disputes to the Chamber, it is is not solely the obligation of the claimant to register his or her appeal.
As mentioned in this blog, the best independent examination of how the UK social security and safety-net system works has been by the UN Human Rights Rapporteur for Poverty. He concluded that the system was failing the country's most vulnerable, keeping and even putting them in dire poverty. Little wonder some like disabled claimant Errol Graham end up taking their own lives.
A summary of my case "Pillar to Post" has been forwarded to the UN Rapporteur in the hope that it will help frame follow-up review questions for how the new system of Universal Credit rolls out. Will it correct shortcomings or will they all be transplanted from the old system as I strongly suspect? Please contact me for a copy and for a summary of the case I also pursued (for poor disabled Cambodians) to the point of having to give up.
2. The Finale
In most advocacy campaigns there comes a time when you must conclude "We've given it our best shot, got nowhere, no point in wasting more time and effort for now". In my case I tend to go further than most before reaching this conclusion - as seen with the complaint of poor Cambodian disabled people that we took all the way up to the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons.
It is evident usually well before that "the system" or the people in it are not willing to be moved, regardless of the merits of arguments. They find ways to dismiss or get round them. The most sure way is to bounce you back to someone at a much earlier stage of proceedings, so that you must start all over again.
A registrar at the Social Entitlement Chamber has just done that in response to my latest enquiry rather than answering my question as to what guidance has been given where claimants dispute ever having received due notice of rights of appeal - exactly what format must it take to be clearly understood as well as proof of delivery? I posed the question directly because one Ombudsman's ruling (in contrast to mine) reported that Councils must report disputes to the Chamber, it is is not solely the obligation of the claimant to register his or her appeal.
As mentioned in this blog, the best independent examination of how the UK social security and safety-net system works has been by the UN Human Rights Rapporteur for Poverty. He concluded that the system was failing the country's most vulnerable, keeping and even putting them in dire poverty. Little wonder some like disabled claimant Errol Graham end up taking their own lives.
A summary of my case "Pillar to Post" has been forwarded to the UN Rapporteur in the hope that it will help frame follow-up review questions for how the new system of Universal Credit rolls out. Will it correct shortcomings or will they all be transplanted from the old system as I strongly suspect? Please contact me for a copy and for a summary of the case I also pursued (for poor disabled Cambodians) to the point of having to give up.
Cambodia has had so many years of "foreignaid" that is not just development professionals who use the jargon with consummate ease. Although as I explain in other blogs there is not a lot left to show for our extensive "Good Governance" training - detailed in my exit blog - much of the content does crop up again. In fact both the Prime minister and Minister of Interior have repeated publicly that government officials are "to serve the people". Indeed PM Hun Sen in August 2018 told them "You are servants, not Bosses". To people unfamiliar with Cambodia, these words will be taken on their merits.
To others, we know that they are intended for external audiences, especially international countries and organisations concerned about the crackdown on freedoms and Civil Society. Domestic audiences, least of all government officials, will pay no heed at all to them. Similar sentiments have been expressed often before, especially in media coverage of good governance training. As an authoritative study explains and I often tweet, the system of public service in Cambodia is based on "rent-seeking". These are informal cash payments collected at every interface with citizens with a share posted up through the staff structure with ultimately a share ending with the Minister. It is why ministers are wealthy despite official salaries of around US $1,000 a month. (For more, please see Global Witness (2016) and PM's claim: "his US$ 13,800 annual salary was his sole source of income".
More can be seen in my 2005 London presentation as to why "Wealth percolates up in Cambodia; it does not trickle down."
More can be seen in my 2005 London presentation as to why "Wealth percolates up in Cambodia; it does not trickle down."
4. Wise Words
or Bemused Looks
One of my favourite memories of [trying to] introduce Good
Governance in Cambodia was the session I introduced for citizens to express
their opinions on public service. Now
please bear in mind this training was only for the most senior officials in all
ministries in ranks below Director-General equivalent of Permanent Secretary in
the UK , and all local authorities including Provincial Governors.
Before getting down to detail I would tell them about my earliest days in local government in the UK with a quip and let them ask questions. I'd explain that I was involved in setting up a new local authority, Surrey County Council, as part of "local government regorgaisation", except we nicknamed it "local government disorganisation". (It and subsequent reorganisations well and truly live up to the name)
I had adopted and translated a small form that peculiarly I happened to have not from the UK but from then apartheid South Africa. You simply ticked a few boxes to say how satisfied you were with whoever dealt with you in public service. We began by each participant noting the last time they were a customer of public service, then to use that experience to complete the form anonymously and post it in a box.
Before getting down to detail I would tell them about my earliest days in local government in the UK with a quip and let them ask questions. I'd explain that I was involved in setting up a new local authority, Surrey County Council, as part of "local government regorgaisation", except we nicknamed it "local government disorganisation". (It and subsequent reorganisations well and truly live up to the name)
I had adopted and translated a small form that peculiarly I happened to have not from the UK but from then apartheid South Africa. You simply ticked a few boxes to say how satisfied you were with whoever dealt with you in public service. We began by each participant noting the last time they were a customer of public service, then to use that experience to complete the form anonymously and post it in a box.
Then a selected team would open the box and analyse the
results. Results almost always expressed
dissatisfaction. I don’t think you should read unduly in to this but education
and children’s schooling was usually top grumble. Those days were before today’s
proliferation of private schools that is confirmation of the grumble. Then they would usually debate if this form
should be introduced in their service. Would feedback help? Many said that it
was the right thing to do, wise words, but all expressed their true feelings in
expressions of bemusement on their faces. Not for the first time was the
unstated message “That’s not how we do things in Cambodia”.
The next session was on a similar theme. This I did borrow
from Surrey County Council and our Chief Executive, Mr F.A. Stone, who was of
course known as “Fast One!” He was keen to have a new corporate image and one
way to show this. although I have forgotten the exact details was for three simple
standards to adhere to such as:
-
If someone comes to see you, don’t keep them
waiting for more than 15 minutes.
-
If someone telephones you, don’t keep them
hanging on for more 5 rings.
-
If someone writes to you, answer within 3 days.
The standards included what to do if you couldn’t meet them.
You had to give holding arrangements, when you would go back to them, or pass
them to someone else that could see you. Above all he insisted from now one
every citizen must know the name and job-title they were dealing with.
I do not need to dwell long on how this suggestion went down in my sessions. Again most said it was a great idea but expressions on faces told me “It won’t work here!”
I find it sad that in 2019 in
Northumberland (and Cambodia) neither of these practices of good governance exist. I must add that in June 2016 I made formal representations to Northumberland County Council's Chief Executive suggesting a return to good governance with an assurance that "they would be taken in to account".
An example of another Good Governance session in those pre-Powerpoint
days.
If you want to try
the test go this
blog:
5. There’s a right
way and a wrong way to do things.
Very often I am critical of the way leaders do things in
Cambodia, and this is not simple Cambodia-bashing. I learned from the wrong
ways some things were done in the UK as well the right way from good bosses. I
feature one in my “Inspirations”
blog with his equally charismatic Social Services colleague who also began one
of most read widely-publicized articles and blogs about “Care-in-the
Community. In fact the theme of this
sub-section has been in other blogs such as “Never
dismissing too lightly” and “Best
person for the job”.
A few years ago the population of Northumberland voted against having one large unitary authority, but it was imposed upon them. There are reasons for its unpopularity. One is that while cuts to services are made and Council Tax bills go up, it enjoys a large surplus in its Council Tax collection. So much of that money bolsters reserves that can be borrowed by one of the UK's richest men. Again at one time the #UK was a firm advocate of the concept of Conflicts of Interests. More on this here.
I am therefore amazed that public service in the UK has gone
backwards while #Cambodia has shown some signs that it might go forward. It won’t
if it takes a lead from regressions in the West while countries like UK and USA
- or their compatriots - keep telling it
what it should do. As stated above idle
disrespect for the UN’s Human Rights Raporteur on Poverty emboldens
authoritarian leaders to dismiss all such reports out-of-hand too.
Now much of my early learning and professional experience
was founded on “The
Rules of Natural Justice”. Indeed
they have stood me in good stead over the years. One of the many lessons that should have been
learned from the “OXFAM Haiti scandal” is that “Abuse-of-Power” occurs all too
easily, especially in #foreignaid, where Country Directors enjoy considerable
freedom. If they work where there is weak or no Rule-of-Law without proper
external supervision and inspection, some evil people will have their evil
ways. OXFAM’s Haiti Director exploited underage prostitutes. I have always held
that whatever standards I would be held to in the UK must be applied abroad. I have managed to deal with some of the worst
human rights violations, not shying away from them (unlike others) by staying
true to these values.
Now I wonder though am I guilty of being stuck in the past
in an unattainable world of old-fashioned values?
Do I or do I not have a right to have Northumberland County
Council decisions re-examined, properly, independently and fairly? Is it not obvious that it simply no longer
observes the Rules of Natural Justice?
Is there no-one there to do as I did many years ago in
Dorset and advise the Chief Executive that if she is involved in a decision or
personally setting the ground rules, she should not preside over a complaint or
appeal hearing?
Northumberland Council opposed me having a right to appeal
to the Valuation panel (on just part of my overall complaint) and now the local
Government Ombudsman also seems reluctant to accept the case too. Why? I have had to chase them up as the auto-response
message to say that a staff member would be in touch within 4-5 days proved
incorrect. Earlier in the saga, when I
asked them “Do I have to appeal to the Valuation Panel first?” they regarded my
question as a full formal complaint and dismissed it out-of-hand.......because “You
have not exercised your right of appeal to the Valuation Panel”. Needless to say they did not reply to my response to that.
A few years ago the population of Northumberland voted against having one large unitary authority, but it was imposed upon them. There are reasons for its unpopularity. One is that while cuts to services are made and Council Tax bills go up, it enjoys a large surplus in its Council Tax collection. So much of that money bolsters reserves that can be borrowed by one of the UK's richest men. Again at one time the #UK was a firm advocate of the concept of Conflicts of Interests. More on this here.
This does not fill you with confidence. Indeed it may be one
of the reasons why a lot of people tell me they have no faith in local democracy.
What is the point if you consult a Councillor about your case. He says that he
will take it up and come back to you – then doesn’t despite reminders.
In Cambodia at least we know why that happens - either we have not bribed him enough or the other party has bribed him more!
6 Representations to the Local Government Ombudsman
9 August 2019 - The Local Government Ombudsman has at long last replied to me to ask "If my complaint is the same one or a new one?". I have submitted all the papers even though it looks like a waste of effort. I have asked for specific answers to my questions about officials not being bound by the figures that the government says people should have to live on and to impose their decisions arbitrarily.
4 September 2019 - The Ombudsman sent me a draft response proposing to dismiss my complaint as I had had two rights of appeals, one of which I had exercised and it had failed (Council Tax), and the other I had failed to exercise (Housing Benefit). I replied to indicate that I was not aware - and had never been made aware - of a right of appeal over housing benefit - quite the contrary the Council indicated it had no choice but to apply national rules. Also more importantly my main complaint is not about money but the way that the Council makes and enforces decisions, including several failures to respond, and that this should be examined as "maladministration". The Ombudsman has referred the case for more investigation.
11 September 2019 - Excellent article condemning Councils like Northumberland's widespread use of Bailiffs to enforce payment of Council Tax and my Tweet on it.
4 November - whatever went wrong has now been put right thanks to DWP in Alnwick whose treatment and public service is in marked contrast to Northumberland CC's.
11 December 2019 - email from UN Human Rights Rapporteur on Poverty:
6 Representations to the Local Government Ombudsman
9 August 2019 - The Local Government Ombudsman has at long last replied to me to ask "If my complaint is the same one or a new one?". I have submitted all the papers even though it looks like a waste of effort. I have asked for specific answers to my questions about officials not being bound by the figures that the government says people should have to live on and to impose their decisions arbitrarily.
4 September 2019 - The Ombudsman sent me a draft response proposing to dismiss my complaint as I had had two rights of appeals, one of which I had exercised and it had failed (Council Tax), and the other I had failed to exercise (Housing Benefit). I replied to indicate that I was not aware - and had never been made aware - of a right of appeal over housing benefit - quite the contrary the Council indicated it had no choice but to apply national rules. Also more importantly my main complaint is not about money but the way that the Council makes and enforces decisions, including several failures to respond, and that this should be examined as "maladministration". The Ombudsman has referred the case for more investigation.
11 September 2019 - Excellent article condemning Councils like Northumberland's widespread use of Bailiffs to enforce payment of Council Tax and my Tweet on it.
29 November 2019 – I will spare you the detail ( please ask if
you want it) but finally, surprise, surprise the Ombudsman dismissed my complaint. The main reason is they have only examined
the housing benefit element of my complaint and they have accepted the Council’s
submission that I failed to register an appeal to go to the Social Entitlement
Chamber. This is despite me maintaining I had seen no communication outlining
such an appeal and it was not mentioned once in reply to my letter asking what
rights of appeal existed; subsequent telephone calls with officers, in response
to my representations made by a County Councillor, and even in the course of
the hearing with the Valuation Panel.
So at the end of the day, my main question has never been
answered, or cleverly evaded – namely the way the Council makes and enforces its decisions - plus of course how can benefits be cut off and additional penalties be imposed
arbitrarily that take claimants' income far below the figure the government
specifies they should have to live on – nor have any of the issues of delay;
failure to reply, and if natural justice is observed in automated processes.
In my November 2019 blog “Best
Days of My life 1969”, there is a video of Kingston Borough Council from
that time. We did not think so at the time but now we can see that for local
government in the UK those really were the best days. Financial cuts are part
of the problem but a lot more besides has deteriorated. It is astonishing that a United Nations
Rapporteur could find the UK so wanting in 2019.
2 November 2021
As stated above, I decided to inform the Ombudsman that Northumberland County Council had repeated the exact same treatment that I find constitutes maladministration. Fortunately in this case it did accept my word but blamed the Department of Work and Pensions for wrong information. It will be no surprise to see that the Ombudsman again behaved as expected. I decided to post a review on Trust Pilot.
Additional Note
11 December 2019 - email from UN Human Rights Rapporteur on Poverty:
Alston, Philip<philip.alston@nyu.edu> | 4 December 2019 at 11:30 |
| To: John Lowrie <lowriejohn@gmail.com> | |
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Delete | Show original
| |
Dear John Lowrie,
I very much appreciate your taking the time to write and to explain the ways in which the welfare system is capable of mistreating people and being entirely unresponsive to their plight. Your aunt's case seems reasonably representative of others that I have come across and I often ask myself why the relevant bureaucracies are not capable of adapting or adjusting their procedures to avoid obvious injustices. My focus is, as you would know, not on individual cases but on how the system as a whole operates and I can assure you that I will continue to try to shine the spotlight on that dimension. | |
No comments:
Post a Comment