To rant about red tape?

[TheViewFromTheSheepSeats]

I am coming to the end of my maternity leave, when I return to work my hours will have reduced to just under £30hpw.
So, as we receive tax credits- like a good citizen I decided to phone HMRC and inform them of this with a few weeks notice, I also needed to inform them that I had miscalculated our income for this tax year.
I call at 8am to be told "oh sorry Mrs theview- we can't change your hours worked until they have already changed, so please telephone us (and be on hold for hours) on your first day back at work"
The telephone operative however was able to submit a recalculation for my miscalculated yearly income- so the daft buggers will send out a new statement, followed by another (different?) statement in a few weeks when I am finally allowed to tell them that my hours are reducing.

This just seems ridiculous, surely by letting them know in advance I am being helpful. But nope, thems the rules.

Next job was to phone my local council and ask them to cancel my meagre housing benefit and council tax reduction claim as my income will be increasing.
"Oh no Mrs the view, we require a payslip (monthly) before we can cancel your claim, and yes this may cause you a months overpayment"

"BUT I WANT YOU TO STOP PAYING ME! -just cancel the damn claim please"

[wasonthelist]

YANBU we are unbelievably shit at almost all kinds of admin in this country.

[TheViewFromTheSheepSeats]

I was just trying to be organised! And I'm far more organised now that I will be on my first day/s back at work and for the foreseeable future.

[Pseudonym99]

Write to them. Just costs the price of a stamp. And you have in writing what you told them. That's what I did and it worked. I sent them a letter every week for a year depending upon how much overtime I did!

[TheViewFromTheSheepSeats]

I will write to them, I know how information can mysteriously go unrecorded- it's just irritating that they seem to want to make Things as awkward as possible.
The silly thing is- why should I even have to jump through hoops to pursuade them to give me less money? They should be delighted and just tick a box/press a button.