[News] Civil Service jobs

[Uh_huh_him]

I used to work in the Civil Service in the Land Registry in Tunbridge Wells. Lasted 6 months, a lazier bunch of time wasting twonks I have never met. One person could have done the job of three or four of them. I finished my days allocation of work in an hour or so. The cheeky EO's then foisted the work of other people on me, most of whom were reading a book or the newspapers.

Back in the 90s early 00s, I had the same experience in many corporate companies.
It isn't a phenomena exclusive of the public sector, it is common across many aspects of the British office worker.

 

[rippleman]

One of our members (apologies I forget who) posted that his son who worked for HMRC had said that the department had never been so efficient since staff had all moved to work from home.

Yesterday I was speaking with a technical Inspector who had 30 years in. He worked on Corporation Tax dealing with loss relief claims (resulting in repayments to SMEs.) His team are now starting to look at claims made LAST July. They are 10 months behind in making refunds to small businesses who desparately need that money. He agreed that the senior management in the Department were clueless!

HMRC is neither efficient nor over-staffed. They have serial incompetents at the head of the organisation. And who appoints those incompetents? Government ministers.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

One of our members (apologies I forget who) posted that his son who worked for HMRC had said that the department had never been so efficient since staff had all moved to work from home.

Yesterday I was speaking with a technical Inspector who had 30 years in. He worked on Corporation Tax dealing with loss relief claims (resulting in repayments to SMEs.) His team are now starting to look at claims made LAST July. They are 10 months behind in making refunds to small businesses who desparately need that money. He agreed that the senior management in the Department were clueless!

HMRC is neither efficient nor over-staffed. They have serial incompetents at the head of the organisation. And who appoints those incompetents? Government ministers.

I had some dealings with the VAT people a few years ago. He told me they were two years behind and not to worry about my issue as long as it was sorted “soon”. Luckily I owed them money. Had it been the other way around I’d be angry. Contrast this with the Berlin tax office who are super rapid; so rapid that they once froze my bank accounts when I was late with a quarterly tax return.

 

[beorhthelm]

Back in the 90s early 00s, I had the same experience in many corporate companies.
It isn't a phenomena exclusive of the public sector, it is common across many aspects of the British office worker.

its a matter of size imo, larger orgs are naturally prone to inefficency, unless they keep internal process minimal/local. i've seen a couple of times how a sub-unit of a large business has been pretty responsive, then loses that as services "consolidated" into larger business services.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

I used to work in the Civil Service in the Land Registry in Tunbridge Wells. Lasted 6 months, a lazier bunch of time wasting twonks I have never met. One person could have done the job of three or four of them. I finished my days allocation of work in an hour or so. The cheeky EO's then foisted the work of other people on me, most of whom were reading a book or the newspapers.

Nowadays they'll be on NSC!

 

[portlock seagull]

If we can manage with 91,000 fewer civil service it begs the question as to why they were employed in the first place?

That’s you manipulated then!

The only civil service redundancy needed is the Prime Minister. Things would improve dramatically thereafter.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Strangely though the pensions people have been very quick. I recently found out that expats can get a full year’s NI contributions for a few quid each quarter; they quickly set up a direct debit so I will now get a full state pension when I retire…..might just pay for a few rounds of craft beer.

 

[Worthing exile]

If we can manage with 91,000 fewer civil service it begs the question as to why they were employed in the first place?

David Cameron once said that being PM was a part time job. And we know that Boris is a lazy bugger so we could probably manage with losing half the MPs as well.

 

[goldstone]

David Cameron once said that being PM was a part time job. And we know that Boris is a lazy bugger so we could probably manage with losing half the MPs as well.

True. We absolutely do not need 600 MPs.

 

[beorhthelm]

True. We absolutely do not need 600 MPs.

1 person representing 80-100k is not a problem.

 

[dsr-burnley]

One of our members (apologies I forget who) posted that his son who worked for HMRC had said that the department had never been so efficient since staff had all moved to work from home.

Yesterday I was speaking with a technical Inspector who had 30 years in. He worked on Corporation Tax dealing with loss relief claims (resulting in repayments to SMEs.) His team are now starting to look at claims made LAST July. They are 10 months behind in making refunds to small businesses who desparately need that money. He agreed that the senior management in the Department were clueless!

HMRC is neither efficient nor over-staffed. They have serial incompetents at the head of the organisation. And who appoints those incompetents? Government ministers.

I think the reason his department was so efficient was because they don't answer the phone, don't open letters, and don't have an email address. If they won't provide a way of asking questions then they can't be accused of not answering them.

 

[A1X]

Sympathy to the people losing their jobs, especially as we appear destined to enter a recession this year. No wonder the Tories are celebrating foodbanks.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

One of our members (apologies I forget who) posted that his son who worked for HMRC had said that the department had never been so efficient since staff had all moved to work from home.

Yesterday I was speaking with a technical Inspector who had 30 years in. He worked on Corporation Tax dealing with loss relief claims (resulting in repayments to SMEs.) His team are now starting to look at claims made LAST July. They are 10 months behind in making refunds to small businesses who desparately need that money. He agreed that the senior management in the Department were clueless!

HMRC is neither efficient nor over-staffed. They have serial incompetents at the head of the organisation. And who appoints those incompetents? Government ministers.

I had some dealings with the VAT people a few years ago. He told me they were two years behind and not to worry about my issue as long as it was sorted within this time frame. Luckily I owed them money. Had it been the other way around I’d be angry. Contrast this with the Berlin tax office who are super rapid; so rapid that they once froze my bank accounts when I was late with a quarterly tax return.

 

[goldstone]

I see you're fishing as usual, because the obvious answer is we can't manage with what we have today. Passport office has the biggest backlog in years and a government that were supposed to be fixing immigration and asylum are totally useless at it and appear to need to be bailed out by a Third World country.

Rees-Mogg was pushing this as cost saving on Today this morning. Well, the only way you're going to do more with less is to improve your processes and technology. Hands up who thinks he's factored in the the costs of software licences and consultancy in to these "savings" (though to be fair, with this load of charlatans there'll probably be a shit ton of baksheesh passed from pals of the party to ensure the contracts are given to the "right" people).

Absolute shower.

First of all, I have no idea what you mean by "fishing". How about trying to speak English?

Second, we could manage with the number we have today, or less, if people were properly managed and worked the number of hours specified in their contracts. Just because the passport office (your example) cannot issue passports on time does not mean it needs more people. The problem needs to be investigated and fixed. I very much doubt that more people is the solution.

 

[cheshunt seagull]

They are so predictable. No-one likes refugees so we will send them to Rwanda. Everyone hates the civil servants. No doubt the performing monkeys will be cheering this and then complaining when they don’t get the service to which they feel entitled.
The public sector has just been through the annual spending review which would be the place to ask for budget changes on a departmental basis. That way it would be linked to actual and planned workloads etc and these will often require staff reductions. I have been through this process as a public sector manager and often identified efficiencies and reduced the size of teams. However seeing as the only purpose of this government is to keep the sleazebag in power rather that actually govern that would not bring the headlines they/he wants

 

[Guinness Boy]

First of all, I have no idea what you mean by "fishing". How about trying to speak English?

Second, we could manage with the number we have today, or less, if people were properly managed and worked the number of hours specified in their contracts. Just because the passport office (your example) cannot issue passports on time does not mean it needs more people. The problem needs to be investigated and fixed. I very much doubt that more people is the solution.

First of all, if you're going to be a member of this community I suggest you learn how to speak "NSC".

Secondly, I very much doubt fewer people is the answer either.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Been a load of speculation above on where this cull is occurring, do we actually know?

Might it be that some of them are now redundant EU support posts that have been eliminated by Brexit - or are we really reducing our NHS, Police etc as some have speculated?

I've contracted on and off with various Government departments over the last 30 years.
Whilst working for the CAA at Gatwick, I got in the lift with a senior CAA officer who had an FAA senior chap over from the US, I overheard the following conversation:

FAA man: "So, how many people work here in this office?"
CAA man: "About half of them."

And I think he wasn't too far from the truth ....

 

[beorhthelm]

Been a load of speculation above on where this cull is occurring, do we actually know?
...

where? we dont even know when, nothing is happening yet, its a soundbite to show something is being done. an intent by politicans that might not be there in 6 months or 6 weeks time.

 

[Brian Potter]

I think the reason his department was so efficient was because they don't answer the phone, don't open letters, and don't have an email address. If they won't provide a way of asking questions then they can't be accused of not answering them.

 

[Worthing exile]

1 person representing 80-100k is not a problem.

But 1 per 200k would be better. One MP could easily represent Brighton & Hove for example. Also save the support staff of 300MPS plus central London office space, plus their bogus financial claims and as an added bonus they could all have a seat each.