ALP efficiency

[red750]

Here's one for the ALP supporters, in particular, the Victorian ALP.

 

They have a scheme for persons of eligible status, such as pensioners, veterans affair pensions, etc., to apply for a $250 energy relief payment.

 

I applied on Feb 10, and received an email on Feb 12, advising my application reference no. and stating that I should hear within 10 working days to finalise my application. On March 12, I emailed them to say I was still waiting to see If my application was successful. I received an immediate automatic reply to say they had a heavy workload and I should hear within 8 working days. It is almost 60 days since my application, so I again emailed them, pointing out that I am 76 years of age, and at their current rate, I may not be alive to find out if I was successful. Within minutes I received an email identical to the March 12 reply, saying I should hear within 8 working days.

 

Gotta hand it to them.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Generally the political party in power makes the legislation (in this case to give you an energy relief payment) and then the relevant government department, ie state public service, has the job of administering it.

 

So it doesn't matter what political party is in power, the government agencies remain the same.  Why are you mentioning the ALP?

[Jerry_Atrick]

When I worked for the Vic Public Service, there really was little pollies could do short of changing the respective leglisation about the PS itself to get things moving. The heads of the departments could be held accountable as could exec/snr management, but us plebs could almost do as we pleased (well, that is an exaggeration, but it was easier to get promoted out of a position than face disciplinary proceedings).

 

But, to be fair, after 5 years in the PS, I went to work for Australia's largest retailed at the time (lat 80's), and to be honest, it wasn't that much more efficeint..

Edited April 15, 2021 by Jerry_Atrick

[red750]

Bloody amazing, isn't it?

 

If the shoe was on the other foot, everybody would be screaming "hopeless damn Liberals."

[facthunter]

Maybe they would and maybe they wouldn't..  Unless you are actually dealing with a minister, Which is usually reserved for people who PAY to keep the Party going, you are dealing with the bureacracy.. Try dealing with most banks OR an Insurance company. Nev

[octave]

21 minutes ago, red750 said:

Bloody amazing, isn't it?

 

If the shoe was on the other foot, everybody would be screaming "hopeless damn Liberals."

Last year I applied for job keeper, a federal program.  The application process was a nightmare. Although I am not a fan of the federal government I understood that it was thrown together due to the covid emergency. Although I spent hours on the phone and it would have been nice if it were simpler,  mainly I was just thankful that this money was made available to me. 

[Marty_d]

31 minutes ago, red750 said:

Bloody amazing, isn't it?

 

If the shoe was on the other foot, everybody would be screaming "hopeless damn Liberals."

 

No, because this has nothing to do with the political party.  There's already so much to complain about with the LNP without blaming them for stuff they can't control.

[Jerry_Atrick]

To be fair, there's plenty to complain about the major political parties and the reality of politics is that it is a greasy pole to climb and there are a lot debt accrued in the form of favours on the way.

 

If the Libs came to power in Vic and the bueracracy prevailed, would it become the fault of the Libs for not fixing it?

 

If the Libs came to power and decided to cancel the allowance or Labor decided to cancel the allowance, that would be the fault of the respective party who took the decision.

 

However, you, on reflection, the law which is enacted by the party inpower (or the statutory instrument if it was not under it's own act) may provide administrative provisions which may complicate things; for example if the law (or the statutory instrument approved by the minister) says something like, the application process must include a reference check of the applicant's movements over the last 20 years to establish they do indeed have a right to the energy allowance the the property they apply for.." then, yes, it is the fault of the party who brought it in.

 

Sounds like it is a new allowance and everyone is applying at the same time... and it is woefully under-resourced.  May be time for a timely call to your local state MP's office - at least they will/should a) write to the minister for an explanation and/or b) raise it in parliamennt (most probably the former, in which case, you may be waiting as long as your application).

[octave]

Red I am no unsympathetic about you problems with this. As I said I a have had this problem a couple of times recently with federal programs, it really sucks but it is not unusual. I think I would be giving the support phone number a call (although Ill bet it involve a long phone queue.)

[spacesailor]

 Can l suggest  !.

Give that support number to the " cold calling " people that annoy me & countless others. No,Laughing,Matter.

spacesailor

[red750]

Following my original post in this topic, I sent an email to our local state member, who is Lib. This morning I received a phone call, shortly before midday, asking if I had heard from the department. I said No, and they said they would contact the minister. I then opened my email inbox, and there was an email from the department, sent today at 11.28 am, advising that I would shortlty receive another email with a secure link to advise details for payment of the grant. The timing was unbelievable. I called the local member's office back and told them. They said they would cancel the email to the minister, and said it wasa a pity they couldn't claim credit for it, but if there were further delays, to contact them.

 

The email from the department must have been sent just as I was receiving the phonecall.

[facthunter]

I think they are all a bit busier than normal these days. Nev

[red750]

Well. I've found out the problem. From a large number of posts on Facebook, it appears all, or at least a large number, of their "Approved" emails, requesting bank details for payment, have been going to Spam folders. After reading the posts, I checked my Spam folder, and sure enough, there were the original and follow-up emails. I have sent a message on the Dept's contact us page telling them this.

[onetrack]

I never let any company control my emails, whether genuine, junk, spam, or whatever. I get every email sent to my computer and they go through Mailwasher first. Mailwasher lets me see what's in the email before it's downloaded - manually, by me.

I can read email headers, email return paths, and preview the email before I decide whether it's genuine, spam, a virus, or just annoying unsolicited crap. Once senders are identified as "friend" or "good", the email comes up marked as such.

The rest get deleted, and the scammers get their emails bounced back to them, to make it look like my email address is invalid.

The way I operate, all my emails are in my possession, on my hard drive, and no-one in any remote giant global sleazy corporation can fiddle with them, without any reference to me - or simply lose them, because "their system" went down, or some scammer hacked into their servers, and got all your emails.

After a dose of viruses and crap in the early 2000's, I decided this was the way my emails would operate. There's no automated "spam" folder to divert emails that I might want to see - although you can set up Mailwasher to automatically delete emails from senders you have already deemed to be spammers - and Mailwasher also run a system blacklisting the baddies, which is great, because it means they have to go to much greater lengths to change their addresses they're using.

[red750]

Finally. The $250 bonus (for pensioners in Vic) lobbed in my account overnight. Now I can pay off part of my electricity bill.