Rick 1-0 DVLA. So why do I still feel defeated?
The saga with the DVLA over my “missed tax payment” has come to an end, with an admission of error from the DVLA. But I am still feeling angry and let down.
Regular readers will recall that a few weeks back I received a very strongly worded letter from the “Continuous Registration Centre” accusing me of failing to pay the tax on my old car. This despite me telling the DVLA twice that I’d sold it. The letter came with a bill for £80 and a threat of legal action.
I appealed, mainly because they were wrong, but also a little bit because I don’t like being spoken to like a child.
And now they have sent me a very terse reply saying that the contents of my letter have been noted, and that no further action will be taken.
Well, how gracious of the DVLA.
So now I don’t have to pay them £80 of my hard-earned money because of a mistake made by their computer.
But of course I am still angry. How dare they send me that letter, assuming themselves to be correct when they were so clearly wrong? How dare their demand for my money come with no telephone number to ring, no human being to appeal to, and no crumb of comfort amongst the threats? And I wonder how many people would simply have paid up, too scared or confused to know that there’s any option? The only alternative is to send a letter explaining the situation, and hoping for the best.
It is a disgrace that we are barred from pleading our case in person. It isn’t on that these computers can demand money off us, and can be so wrong. I am glad I’ve got them off my back, but this just isn’t a fair approahc for a government agency to take with its citizens.
So I am writing to the DVLA asking them to stop this practice, and to at the very least provide a telephone number for appeals. I am also asking them to tell me, under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, the number of these letters that have been sent out, and the number which have been successfully appealed against. It is shocking that these menacing letters, essentially demanding money for no good reason, should be sent out by this government to the people it purports to serve.
I will let you know the results.
Rick
2 Comments
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Won’t do owt. I got into a similar “computer says no” situation with a TV licence the other year. I’m a full-time student, and pay for a TV licence (unlike some fellow TV-watching students I shan’t name). I did a year abroad in Germany as part of my degree, so cancelled my TV licence at the end of the preceding academic year and didn’t renew it when the next one started. I got back about 6 months later on a trip home, cleared out my mailbox at college whilst I was in the country, and found a series of angry letters including a recent one threatening legal action. “We know you live here, we know you have a TV …” Well, only because I’d done the decent thing and told you I lived there and had a TV! Not my fault that the computer just assumed I would need a new one …
I rang up and played hell, but imagine being an older pensioner and getting letters like that for no good reason …
Well, indeed. And at least with the TV licence people there’s a number to ring.
It annoys me, and is, I think, unreasonable, that these days it is compulsory to provide your name and address if you buy a TV. I did just that when I bought a TV recently, and because the TV licence is in my girlfriend’s name I no get occasional reminders from them about the need to buy a licence that we already have.
Madness, and very annoying. And symptomic of a widespread government problem.