Letters wrongly demanding that UK citizens seek ‘settled’ status could be part of established Tory plan
Around six months ago, This Writer received a form letter from the Department for Work and Pensions, demanding details of my self-employed earnings from me (if I recall correctly) and saying my claim for Carers’ Allowance was in danger if I didn’t respond.
I found this behaviour extremely odd as I had quit Carers’ Allowance more than a year previously.
I wrote back, pointing this out, and also the fact that we had agreed at the time that I had done the right thing and that my finances were in order.
I did not receive a reply – neither acknowledgement nor apology.
I mention this because yesterday, on Twitter, I read the following:
Surprised to receive a letter from HM Government saying that I need to apply for #settlementscheme, being a EEA or Swiss national, while I've been a British Citizen since 1998 and have my Certificate of Naturalisation as well as British passport. Are there more cases like mine?
— J Opacka💙 (@jopackaj) May 15, 2021
It seems there are more such cases:
https://twitter.com/TanjaBueltmann/status/1394342893872193537
The Home Office letter, according to the article, tells long-term British citizens they risk losing the right to work, benefits and free healthcare unless they apply for UK immigration status in the next six weeks.
The article states that people are concerned that it reveals weaknesses in the Home Office’s databases, but I don’t think that’s right.
It seems more likely to be an attempt to repeat what I think the DWP was trying to do to me – catch me out by inducing me to provide evidence that could be used against me; a fishing expedition.
And the Home Office has the perfect cover for it at the moment: Brexit.
So officers can say (as they have) that they are using every avenue available to ensure that everyone who needs to apply for the EU settlement scheme may do so, before it is too late and they have to face other consequences.
They say the letter does include a paragraph stating that those who already have citizenship that they do not need to apply – but this is buried on page two, far below the shock announcement that recipients may lose their right to work, benefits and free healthcare (free? It’s supported by our taxes/NI).
It seems clear to me that the Conservatives are abusing their control of the UK’s bureaucracy in order to cause as much fear and confusion as possible, keeping the public off-balance.
This makes people more susceptible to manipulation – and more likely to accept that they deserve punishment when they haven’t done anything wrong.
It’s gaslighting – and right on the border of fraud.
It could be interpreted as a new development of the Tory government’s racist “hostile environment” policy.
I wonder how many people have been fooled by it – and how many other such scams are being run by the Tories?
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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The Department of Works and Pensions is a chaotic and incompetent office of government. Their mistakes are legion. Their letters always strange. A conspiracy by such a department is laughable. They are many different offices, with no communication between them, and mostly a post office box address. The left hand don’t know what right hand is doing.
Scumbag Torys gaslighting people with lies and conducting a fishing expedition trying to catch people out this looks to me like classic Tory scum pulling a new hostile environment BS policy out their backsides. Why Brexit I bet!
There are to many story’s showing there cronyism and Bozo’s many flaws currently, so they need a easy win to point to in there scum media friends…
It’s not fraud ha ha ha they the government
Are using all means to attack the peasants
Any but anyway they can use against us it’s dam
Right fraudulent use of power and those being
Asked for who are now British subjects are they
Going to be the new ones flown out quietly
I’m a former Civil Servant, although not with either of these departments. I saw several debacles unfold in my own department however. These came from politicians ignoring the advice of people who knew the systems and what they were capable of. Policies made by politicians were pushed through systems that couldn’t cope. Policy rarely got down to the level of when letters were issued although the make up of these would, for major documents, be designed by the nudge unit to nudge the customer in whatever direction the government so desired. Beyond that there is no conspiracy to fish for information. The Civil Service is still disjointed and damaged by the politicians who run it (always remember, it is politicians and not Civil Servants who make the big decisions, no matter what they may say) and it will never be able to enter into such activities deliberately.
You say politicians ask the system to do things it shouldn’t, and that politicians make the big decisions. I think there’s enough information there to suggest that it is entirely possible that something dodgy has been going on. I’m not suggesting co-ordination between civil servants.
The DWP is a catastrophe that is happening. Last year in April I got a letter from over payments section saying they had overpaid my mother and as her next of kin I had to pay them £6,000 back. I did everything right I know what I am doing with them and their games. My mother died in 2006.I got my advocate to tell them to bogg off and they did
Nice one!