I’d never pay that money back if I were in her shoes.
Either don’t pay it back and let them try take it to court. I really don’t think that would go well for the relevant authorities. Or offer to pay it back at 5c a week.
>“A few hours [after my tweet ](https://twitter.com/AddressingLife/status/1535193782853025792)of the letter, A lady rang me and referred to my tweet of the letter. She said she was from the Disability Allowance section based in Longford. She gave her condolences for the loss of my son and apologised for the tone of the letter, stating she would look into how those letters are worded. But then she reiterated that there was an overpayment and I owe the €208.
What a bunch of bastards
He was due most of the payment presumably?
He died on the 17th and €208 was collected on the 18th. How do they owe €208?
They had some minister or other on the radio saying she wouldn’t have to pay it back. Shocking behavior all the same, absolute ghouls.
Anywhere else I’d struggle to believe this but not Ireland it just shows the horrible way the Health Service treats people
I cannot understand how no journalist completes an FOI to all Government Departments/ Offices/ Authorities etc for the amount of money that is wrote off annually, in the running of organisations not just monies not received.
This pittance of 208 is nothing.
Frank McNamara can write off 3 million in debt, and they can’t wait a couple of weeks for a grieving family, for what probably amounts to a TDs daily lunch expense, nor should they have even bothered them in the first place
The €208 disability allowance is likely a lot less than the exceptional needs payment she’d qualify for to pay for a funeral.
Arguing with numbers instead of emotion, because I don’t think the government gives a fuck about being decent
I can only assume that some of these organisations attract people who like to say “gotcha!”
It’s rather heartless.
I’d love to collect €208 worth of 1c coins and dump it at their counter. I definitely have a lot of them in my change jar.
Imagine being asked to do that even at work and then responding “yes ok”
Am i missing something? He died the 17th and she went and collected the next payment on the 18th and is upset that she was no longer entitled to it? How is this any different to anyone continuing to claim the pension on behalf of someone who died??
Edit: im not pissed at the grieving woman, im baffled at the rest of ye screaming that her committing fraud (even out of genuine misunderstanding) and needing to repay it is unacceptable.
I mean thats bad and all but surely you would just give it a quick read and put the letter on the pile of other bills and get to it whenever one was able to sort through the mundane stuff? It is a “computer says no” type semi-automated exercise by some office stooge. Not a personnal hand written demand, written on the dingy desk of some black hearted Maggie Thatcher caricature. Pay it back in a few months when one gets around to it. Serriously its not something to waste energy dwelling on and publicly complaining about. Bills is bills. Pay it if you think you are going to use the services again or dont pay of you dont think you will use them. Depends on what hill your prepared to die on for 200 quid? If it was me id just pay it along with the other bills that accumulated in a few months when the grief allows it…?
Companies and government departments really need to work on their approach. If you wait a week or two, and then bring up payments of the deceased up, you will likely get a more relaxed response from relatives, bringing it up straight away as someone is mourning fresh off is just tactless and idiotic on the companies or government divisions part.
What infuriates me is the tone of the response from the Dept on the radio -as if this was an “oh my how did that happen?” moment.
I lost my brother in 2017 to cancer. he was 25. He had special needs and Both he and my mother received the same benefits as Tracey and Brendan. When he died, we contacted citizens advice because we couldn’t get a person from the Dept on the phone. CA advised the same as above and mam claimed for 2/3 weeks before the letter came. it was her only source of income at what was a horrific time. Bills, food, funeral, surviving. Our world had just shattered.
That letter was nearly as bad as tue funeral. The tone was so horrid. It was almost accusatory and she literally felt like a criminal and she’d done wrong -even though we knew we had no other means. They are so cold, so devoid of humanity. It was a poisonous time. I fucking hate the horrible bastards in the civil service who decide these policies.
life goes.. on?
It was probably automated. The women on the phone has to follow the rules too. But I reckon they could have waited a month to make the call like.
This is so tragic. I imagine it was computer generated in error.
Ruthless
My grandfather died in the middle of the month after his state pension had already been paid. He’d been dead for about two days when my nana got a letter saying that she needed to pay them back for the rest of the month’s pension.
We were fortunate that we didn’t need the money and could afford to send it back, but the whole thing was ridiculous.
To all the civil servants here blaming technology, that old chestnut:
Someone approved that template at least once, it wasn’t generated by AI or put in an envelope by a robot. The days of “computer says no” truly are upon us, but there’s a person with a file printing that letter and placing it in an envelope. There’s only so much you can blame technology for.
Heather Humphries is a cunt
Reminder that this is the end result of all those “Welfare cheats cheat us all” campaigns. This is what you end up with and I want people to remember this next time they see some knuckle dragger complaining about people on the dole.
The problem here is that somebody in that office probably got word the person died, closed their claim from the date they died, and the system sees it’s paid up to a later date and automatically generates a overpayment letter that is sent in the post straight away from a central printing unit.
There’s a tendency to assume there’s some cunt in an office chomping at the bit to send an overpayment letter to hurt someone, when very often it’s an automatic process.
26 comments
Yep, seems about right for this country
I’d never pay that money back if I were in her shoes.
Either don’t pay it back and let them try take it to court. I really don’t think that would go well for the relevant authorities. Or offer to pay it back at 5c a week.
>“A few hours [after my tweet ](https://twitter.com/AddressingLife/status/1535193782853025792)of the letter, A lady rang me and referred to my tweet of the letter. She said she was from the Disability Allowance section based in Longford. She gave her condolences for the loss of my son and apologised for the tone of the letter, stating she would look into how those letters are worded. But then she reiterated that there was an overpayment and I owe the €208.
What a bunch of bastards
He was due most of the payment presumably?
He died on the 17th and €208 was collected on the 18th. How do they owe €208?
They had some minister or other on the radio saying she wouldn’t have to pay it back. Shocking behavior all the same, absolute ghouls.
Anywhere else I’d struggle to believe this but not Ireland it just shows the horrible way the Health Service treats people
I cannot understand how no journalist completes an FOI to all Government Departments/ Offices/ Authorities etc for the amount of money that is wrote off annually, in the running of organisations not just monies not received.
This pittance of 208 is nothing.
Frank McNamara can write off 3 million in debt, and they can’t wait a couple of weeks for a grieving family, for what probably amounts to a TDs daily lunch expense, nor should they have even bothered them in the first place
The €208 disability allowance is likely a lot less than the exceptional needs payment she’d qualify for to pay for a funeral.
Arguing with numbers instead of emotion, because I don’t think the government gives a fuck about being decent
I can only assume that some of these organisations attract people who like to say “gotcha!”
It’s rather heartless.
I’d love to collect €208 worth of 1c coins and dump it at their counter. I definitely have a lot of them in my change jar.
Imagine being asked to do that even at work and then responding “yes ok”
Am i missing something? He died the 17th and she went and collected the next payment on the 18th and is upset that she was no longer entitled to it? How is this any different to anyone continuing to claim the pension on behalf of someone who died??
Edit: im not pissed at the grieving woman, im baffled at the rest of ye screaming that her committing fraud (even out of genuine misunderstanding) and needing to repay it is unacceptable.
I mean thats bad and all but surely you would just give it a quick read and put the letter on the pile of other bills and get to it whenever one was able to sort through the mundane stuff? It is a “computer says no” type semi-automated exercise by some office stooge. Not a personnal hand written demand, written on the dingy desk of some black hearted Maggie Thatcher caricature. Pay it back in a few months when one gets around to it. Serriously its not something to waste energy dwelling on and publicly complaining about. Bills is bills. Pay it if you think you are going to use the services again or dont pay of you dont think you will use them. Depends on what hill your prepared to die on for 200 quid? If it was me id just pay it along with the other bills that accumulated in a few months when the grief allows it…?
Companies and government departments really need to work on their approach. If you wait a week or two, and then bring up payments of the deceased up, you will likely get a more relaxed response from relatives, bringing it up straight away as someone is mourning fresh off is just tactless and idiotic on the companies or government divisions part.
What infuriates me is the tone of the response from the Dept on the radio -as if this was an “oh my how did that happen?” moment.
I lost my brother in 2017 to cancer. he was 25. He had special needs and Both he and my mother received the same benefits as Tracey and Brendan. When he died, we contacted citizens advice because we couldn’t get a person from the Dept on the phone. CA advised the same as above and mam claimed for 2/3 weeks before the letter came. it was her only source of income at what was a horrific time. Bills, food, funeral, surviving. Our world had just shattered.
That letter was nearly as bad as tue funeral. The tone was so horrid. It was almost accusatory and she literally felt like a criminal and she’d done wrong -even though we knew we had no other means. They are so cold, so devoid of humanity. It was a poisonous time. I fucking hate the horrible bastards in the civil service who decide these policies.
life goes.. on?
It was probably automated. The women on the phone has to follow the rules too. But I reckon they could have waited a month to make the call like.
This is so tragic. I imagine it was computer generated in error.
Ruthless
My grandfather died in the middle of the month after his state pension had already been paid. He’d been dead for about two days when my nana got a letter saying that she needed to pay them back for the rest of the month’s pension.
We were fortunate that we didn’t need the money and could afford to send it back, but the whole thing was ridiculous.
To all the civil servants here blaming technology, that old chestnut:
Someone approved that template at least once, it wasn’t generated by AI or put in an envelope by a robot. The days of “computer says no” truly are upon us, but there’s a person with a file printing that letter and placing it in an envelope. There’s only so much you can blame technology for.
Heather Humphries is a cunt
Reminder that this is the end result of all those “Welfare cheats cheat us all” campaigns. This is what you end up with and I want people to remember this next time they see some knuckle dragger complaining about people on the dole.
The problem here is that somebody in that office probably got word the person died, closed their claim from the date they died, and the system sees it’s paid up to a later date and automatically generates a overpayment letter that is sent in the post straight away from a central printing unit.
There’s a tendency to assume there’s some cunt in an office chomping at the bit to send an overpayment letter to hurt someone, when very often it’s an automatic process.