One
of the joys of being the parent/carer of an autistic person is dealing with
local authority services and payment departments (because no service is freely
provided).
A
particular joy is the ever changing computer systems and communications difficulties
of added layers of bureaucracy created by outsourcing of administration.
From Facebook Archives...
This morning I was having a nice
cup of tea and a chat in Patisserie Valerie with Dr D when my mobile rang.
It was the accounts guy at the Rising Sun Day
Centre asking me to chase North Tyneside because they are behind in their
payments for Ferretfingers's service.
When
I got home I rang Direct Payments and spoke to the lovely Ken (he is lovely
honest).
It transpires that Ferretfingers's
Personal Contribution hasn't been going in since last November because when
they "changed the firm that administers the
system" his details were somehow not transferred over. So the Standing Order money went out of my
account and bounced back in five days later. I now have to go to my bank to
sort out paying off the backlog (thankfully I have the funds) and organise
another standing order.
Three
things spring to mind.
Firstly
why didn't they notice this until last week?
Secondly
why didn't they get onto me instead of not paying people? I approve the Rising
Sun's invoices each month by email so it's not as if they haven't got contact
details.
And
thirdly...
Ain't
outsourcing wonderful?!
Mrs Leftfoot Outsourcing...what joy...
Mr
Melodeon I think you mean 'ouch sourcing'!
Mrs Leftfoot Boom!Boom!
Erica They paid my fostering payments into Fosterdaughter’s
direct payment account until I asked where my money was as!
Bentonbag This email (edited here) has just wung its way to North Tyneside (copied to my councillor):-
Further to your letter dated 23/7/18 and our phone conversation yesterday please find attached payment confirmation that £737.38 has been transferred from my Bank account into North Tyneside’s account, being payment for Ferretfingers’ Personal Contributions since last November.
I trust that Direct Payments will now be
able to process and pay all outstanding invoices, approved by me via email, to
the Rising Sun and any other provider whose service Ferretfingers has used.
I have also set up a Standing Order for Ferretfingers’
reassessed contribution of £19.26 per week, payments should start
tomorrow.
The original Standing Order for £8.77 per
week has been closed.
I understand the
account it was being paid into was closed last November so the money was
returned into my account a few days after each payment.
If North Tyneside Adult Social Care Direct
Payments had informed me last November that the account had been closed, and
provided details of the new account, I would have been able to amend the Standing
Order appropriately. Service providers,
such as the Rising Sun, would not have been left out of pocket and waiting for
payment. Ferretfingers and I would not
have had to find seven months Personal Contributions in one lump sum.
I am personally embarrassed that, without my
knowledge and through no fault of my own, Ferretfingers and I have been placed
in debt.
I am also concerned that other service
users, who may not have our financial and social resources, have been placed in
the same situation.
Yours
Bentonbag
For and on behalf
of Ferretfingers
Mild by our family’s snottogram standards
Woolerwoman There is nothing, however well it worked previously, that cannot be utterly f****d up by outsourcing. It seems to be the entire point of the operation.
Bentonbag Just received an apologetic email from Direct Payments.
For November 2017 read April 2017 when "a
letter in email format was sent out to all account holders confirming and
explaining the change of account and the need to reset up standing orders,
however we can only assume in respect to your case something went wrong in this
communication".
Which makes them not noticing or contacting me until
almost August 2018 even more mind numbingly inefficient.
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