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  • EADD Moderators: Shambles

Universal Credit - Anyone on it yet?

Must be painful to work for the IT companies that design these crappy systems knowing full well you're producing lemons. Unless it's a deliberate ploy to get another juicy, longterm contract when the current one fails miserably. Oh, of course... 8)
 
The last system HMRC brought in, the updated PAYE system (fucked if I can remember the name, might just be NPS or something like that) was a farce. We mainly used it for issuing tax codes. Often it would be quite clear that it was trying to issue the wrong tax code because it was fucking a calculation up somewhere, or not taking something into account (person being over 75 & married for example). We could see what was wrong, why it was wrong & know exactly what tax code we wanted to send out but would be unable to do it as there was no way to manually override it (although there was on the 80s system we'd been using before!) so we'd just get told to issue the wrong code anyway.

Obviously cunts were kicking up a mad fuss about the supposedly banging new system being incapable of doing some of the most basic things. It wasn't fucked though. Not at all. It was perfect. It was "working to design" apparently. It was just a really shite design. It eventually got fixed (not 100%) after, as far as I know, another hefty contract to the company that built it.

As an example of how HMRC themselves couldn't make any changes to this system - A standard thing after fucking about with someone's tax record would be to leave a note on the record detailing what you'd done. Easy thing for the system to deal with. Except they made the text box only hold like 120 characters. HMRC could not change this. What I imagine to be 1 line of code (admittedly I know fuck all about this but how hard can it be?). It had to go back to the folk that built it to do that, meaning more cash for them & the last time I touched a computer in there it still wasn't fixed. I think they decided it wasn't worth it tbh.

Shambles - Not at all. It's cash money in the bank for them. They get fat contracts out of this type of work. Usually for multiple years & silly sums of money.
 
I had a sanction back in the 90s my money was cut to about £22 a week so i signed off went to visit my mate in Southampton & signed on down their & in the bit where it said what was your last job i said that i had been Tulip Picking In Amsterdam .

Made up some daft address like 10 Amsterdam street Amsterdam n they bought it .

Those were the days :\
 
^

Rings bells, same as the HBIS computer fuck up for HB. Note in the diary - except some cunt had decided to invent twitter a couple of decades early and, as you say, you had about 120 characters to fit in all the complex stuff you'd done (because the computer couldn't)

Also, you say the 80's system had a manual override. I bet it didn't at first, but was an update to fix an incompetent system in the first place. That was HBIS. Still can't remember the name of the cunts that produced it, it's annoying me now.
 
I've remembered the name of the old one! This'll show you how old it was lol. It was called COP. Computerisation Of PAYE.

Aye, the ability to issue manual codes could have been added later. Maybe not to fix a broken system though, possibly just to deal with changes in legislation beyond simple changes to rates/allowances. Again, because HMRC themselves would have had no way of changing the actual code of the software.
 
Ismene said:
^^

You arn't getting employed tho - you're being forced to work for someone for your dole money. If you don't behave the employer informs your dole office and you lose your benefits for 3 years. No skin off his nose. It's not as if it's cost him anything.
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Not sure what you mean here issy, I'm talking about 'proper jobs', not some YTS or whatever the fuck the modern equivalent is called...
 
Shambles said:
This is politicunts we're talking about though, Knock. It's far more important to make sure the massive contract goes to the "right" people than it is to get a functioning system out of it. All governmental IT projects (whomsoever happens to be in power) are abysmal failures costing countless billions, never working, coming in billions over budget and years behind schedule and having to be regularly replaced cos they're shite to start off with and either utterly useless almost instantaneously or hopelessly outdated within moments of being switched on for the first time. I could design better IT systems ;)
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I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a last minute U-turn over this universal credit, when they finally realise that it is not going to work - though not until after they've spend millions of taxpayers money trying to make it work...
 
the public sector are forever being ripped off though, its standard procedure as usually, nobody involved gives a shit if theyre being overcharged or not. i know an electrician who says its a matter of course to overcharge on public contracts - id imagine its the same policy for any other service provided to the state


there should be provisions within contracts that ensure any work subsequently required to make the system function as initially outlined should be carried out without charge, thus encouraging the desigers to get it right first time around - rather than the current state of affairs, where it is positively beneficial to have faults crop up in a public system that you are contracted to address
 
Anyone know how much this new benefit system is going to be paying per month?

Also I assume everybody will all get the exact same amount even if your on ESA at the moment, it's looking to me like my weekly allowance may be going up a good 100%

Personally I don't mind having my housing benefit paid direct to myself, of course I would love to go blow the lot & smoke / sniff it up the wall but anyone that's not had a stable roof over their head before will know how important secure accommodation is.

I think it's this simple, the moment you get your rent money go DIRECTLY to your landlord etc & pay your rent, anyone that fucks up such a simple task as that is mad because you know in your heart next month your gonna be sleeping in the Asda cardboard bin & out in the subway begging / busking for spare change.
 
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The last time I was claiming Housing benefit was about 1995, and then we had the choice of having it paid to us, or direct to the landlord.

Was good times, landlords/tenants always used to come up with some mutually beneficial rent figure.
 
Mr_Magpie said:
Anyone know how much this new benefit system is going to be paying per month?

Also I assume everybody will all get the exact same amount even if your on ESA at the moment, it's looking to me like my weekly allowance may be going up a good 100%

Personally I don't mind having my housing benefit paid direct to myself, of course I would love to go blow the lot & smoke / sniff it up the wall but anyone that's not had a stable roof over their head before will know how important secure accommodation is.

I think it's this simple, the moment you get your rent money go DIRECTLY to your landlord etc & pay your rent, anyone that fucks up such a simple task as that is mad because you know in your heart next month your gonna be sleeping in the Asda cardboard bin & out in the subway begging / busking for spare change.
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Here's a pdf explaining it all. http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/...20-%20FAQs.pdf

Apparently UC will be capped at £500/week for couples and £350/week for singles. However, that's the MAXIMUM, not what everyone will be getting (christ, if they were giving every single person £350/week noone would bother working), and is obviously dependant upon location, circumstances, etc. This should stop all the 'Asian family of 47 living in a 6 bed mansion claiming £60,000/year in benefits' stories that the Sun are so keen upon..
 
The reason UC has to have new IT is that the processor clocks on the big old Unix mainframe systems are about to roll over and they'll stop working altogether.Don't forget that some of these mainframes have been running since the early 1980's
 
Mailmonkey said:
The last time I was claiming Housing benefit was about 1995, and then we had the choice of having it paid to us, or direct to the landlord.

Was good times, landlords/tenants always used to come up with some mutually beneficial rent figure.
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My God, I don't know if that's classed as theft or a early form of piracy.

Thanks F.U.B.A.R. For the link too
 
I have noticed his issue with all things pirate hence why I commented.

I've been reading about his 6 apdb & pirate adventure with a ever increasingly bigger smile on my face, the guy is class :)

Personally for me Pirate was not too kind, only did it a few times when it was still legal but the one main reason I didn't go back to it was because my finger turned purple & I lost all feeling in the tip for a good 2/3 days.
 
Mr_Magpie said:
I have noticed his issue with all things pirate hence why I commented.

I've been reading about his 6 apdb & pirate adventure with a ever increasingly bigger smile on my face, the guy is class :)

Personally for me Pirate was not too kind, only did it a few times when it was still legal but the one main reason I didn't go back to it was because my finger turned purple & I lost all feeling in the tip for a good 2/3 days.
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Ah, I did wonder if your comment was intentional =D

Never tried it meself (but following the same logic, most things you put up yer nose could be called 'pirate', they all have a similar effect on the ol' mucous membranes), but considering my vascular system isn't exactly tip top these days due to years of IVing citric acid, then that's probably not a bad thing....
 
JJ-180 said:
The reason UC has to have new IT is that the processor clocks on the big old Unix mainframe systems are about to roll over and they'll stop working altogether.Don't forget that some of these mainframes have been running since the early 1980's
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Most Unix systems I've seen in the last 15 years have been 64-bit and are not affected by the 2038 problem. There's no need to move to a microsoft cloud system to fix that, it just needs a change to date storage formats in the software. Same idea as Y2K, likely to be the same non-event.
 
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