DWP Mail handling centrers what I have found out...shocking

justinbarrow
justinbarrow Member Posts: 338
edited 12. Jun 2014, 05:38 in Living with Arthritis archive
I recently got asked to submit a medical cert and seen that it had to be sent to a mail handling centre in Wolverhampton instead of the usual office. I called to make sure this was the correct address as the usual address is a Glasgow address and was told that all DWP mail goes to mail handling sites now and that post is opened by royal mail postal workers then they forward it onto the relevant office.

You can be sending very sensitive information about your health and income plus your national insurance details all it takes is one corrupt postal worker to use this as a chance to obtain personal details of people.

I asked if I could just send it to the Glasgow office and was told that if i did they would send it all the way to Wolverhampton to be opened there only for it to then be forwarded back up to the Glasgow office (does not make sense)

So when I explained that someone had signed at 6:22 in the morning and that it had been received they said the signature is only to say that its been opened and received at the mail handling site and not at the office that needs it.

What a way to do things but I think its a serious risk for public personal info.

So if you have to send something to a "mail handling site" address then the things you send are opened by royal mail first then forwarded on.

No wonder stuff is getting lost and important documents/forms take longer to be received by the DWP.

Comments

  • barbara12
    barbara12 Member Posts: 21,280
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    blimey Justin this is awful and I think people should be warned before hand..then you have the option to send then somewhere else but I doubt they will so thanks...I am gobsmacked
    Love
    Barbara
  • justinbarrow
    justinbarrow Member Posts: 338
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I Know - I was told if you mark your envelope as "private & confidential" then the postal workers cant legally open the letter you send but it still has to go to their mail opening centres to only be then forwarded onto where it should go un-opened.

    What a way to do things.
  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I'm not surprised after the who-ha I had with the ATOS forms, been put in wrong name and then going missing! It just shows what a total mess this whole new Benefits set up is! Better stop now otherwise I will start ranting on!! :x
  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,697
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • justinbarrow
    justinbarrow Member Posts: 338
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Thats a good link Stickywicket though the way this government are doing stuff especially confidential mail is disgusting.
  • Bovey
    Bovey Member Posts: 25
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Am I being paranoid or does this Government consider the sick and disabled a drain on the Big Society. We seem to be being portrayed as skivers/work shy/liers and scrounges. Why am I not surprised at this lack of concern over our personal details. We appear to warrant less concern than a working contributing member of society. The prevailing attitude towards benefits claimants has changed in the last decade; I am of the opinion that the Government has set out to encourage this change. ATOS claimed violent behaviour towards their staff was one reason they were leaving their contract early; a Freedom of Information disclosure showed that to be more than an exaggeration. Food banks are claimed to be hyping up their business rather than speaking the truth about hunger amongst the sick and disabled. We are pariahs, we could work but don't want to, etc etc.
    If that data protection story was about any other part of society the 24hr news crews would have jumped on it, but they haven't.
    Perhaps the Government would prefer we went away, didn't exist.
    We all need to put private and confidential on our envelopes and then see what they do. I suspect the rules will change and it will be opened.
    This attitude towards the sick and disabled happened before in Europe, and seeing glimpses of it again sends chills down my spine.
    Sorry to be so cynical, and please contradict me and tell me I'm nuts. I was a lifelong Conservative supporter, not any more.
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    The system has been abused for far too long; it's the truthful innocents who end up paying the cost in terms of not being believed or trusted. DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • dawnf43
    dawnf43 Member Posts: 27
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I have just finished filling in my ESA50 form and following reading this thread I have marked in "private and confidential" before sending it back. I was horrified that postal workers had access to private medical information.

    Dawn