Head of HMRC Resigns ahead of commons statement today Re details of 15 MILLION child benefit claims on lost disc

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

bbc news

' Interesting, presumably they've just dropped down behind a desk or something, then?? '

yep expect so- I worked there as a temp (VAt office, many moons ago, over a decade anyhow) for 18 months and behind a desk would be about bang on. IME. Or in the tea making cupboard, or dropped in the bottom of a file somewhere.

If the bank transfers are already set up - will we still get our money? I hope so - I need it!

I have to deal with HM Revenur & Customs on a regular basis for work and they manage to be completely useless and arrogant at the same time which is not exactly a winning combination.

They're not all bad you know- I used to get comlpiments and some of my colleagues were very nice, its just a few idiots who seem to have mainly face to face roles for some bizarre reason.

Can you imagine being the "junior official" that sent the discs off unregistered?! That would really win any "no my day at work was worse than yours" arguments.

The sinking feeling when you realise you have lost the confidential details of half the population and its YOUR FAULT that questions are being asked in parliament.

blimey i am going to call my bank check no irregular activity. bloody incompetent
" bbc news link"
"4 news"
" more channel 4 links",

"Q&A"

perhaps they'll come back from holiday and say 'no i didn't post it - it's still in my bottom drawer - why do you ask, have you been looking for it'

i've just rung the helpline too - number was on Channel 4 news - got straight through to lass who said they were sure it was still in the building - and they'll have a lot more information tomorrow - wanted to say 'oh will your superiors have had a chance to make something up by then' but she was awfully sweet - and must have been having an awful day as well

I think "whats the worst cock up you've ever made at work" could be quite an amusing thread. Played it with my university housemates once about our holiday jobs:

The med student had given sugared tea to an old diabetic man who she had been told mustn't have sugar.

The hotel management student working as a hotel receptionist double booked the honeymoon suite.

The law student faxed a vital "how shall we screw the other side" fax to the other side instead of to the client.

We concluded the doubled booked honeymoon suite was the worst.

no one is reassured that they are password protected discs then?

Thought not... just as well the code is prob 1234...

Twats, I send nothing now without bloody insurance

Blimey.
My first thought was "Oh I don't claim benefits" but of course I do claim child benefit. (Pays for the vino...)
I bet it's lying under a pile of paperwork in the auditor's office...

I cant be arsed to ring tbh.

After the crap I've had to deal with at HMRC's expense - particularly their "helplines" (the ones that dont have numbers of any of their offices, and even if they did - cant give them out ), the ones where you speak to one person who says one thing, and then speak to another and they say something else.

I apparently dont exist when it suits them except i've paid tax and NI almost non-stop for 12 years. Ditto with DH. In fact they took him to court (without notification) for £10,000. When we finally found out what they'd done, and got an accountant on the case - it turns out they actually owed us £1750.

Yet, through my work, I see companies that owe 2 or 3 years worth of PAYE etc that runs into hundreds of thousands and the HMRC are nowhere near as swift at chasing them.....it all sucks.

Rings true, VVQ. My ex-nanny and I have been trying for MONTHS to convince R&C that she has indeed stopped working for me. I sent all the bloody paperwork off in February! Poor girl was on emergency tax for months and I was deluged with demands for P45s. Which I couldn't create and was never supposed to create given she was employed on the domestic scheme...

We were contacted the other day by HMRC because they want to do an audit of our payroll. They said that they wanted to view the data before they came out to do the visit. I said that I would send the file as an attachment to an e-mail. They said that they couldn?t cope with that ? I had to send it in on a CD!

If they had sent the Child Benefit information electronically then they wouldn?t be in this mess.

But - you dont need to send P45's and you are not allowed to send duplicates.

How do you get all that data on a disc?? I seem to manage to get about three photos on before the disc is full.
Even it was stolen, it probably won't be readable, or meaningful if it is readable.
My bank sends me a text message every day showing the transaction for the previous day. I have had that since my card was cloned - twice. The bank paid up promptly.
And my point is? Sorry, I've forgotten.

I know, VVQ, and so do half of all the various people in different departments I've spoken to at the Revenue. I've even got one department talking to another department while I hold to try to get this sorted!

Mrs Guy you "Zip" it up of sorts, and I'm sure if someone wanted to they could read it......

Edam - you did well! Usually one department refuses to speak to the other!!!!

Does this mean we won't be getting our child benefit this month?

Well, theoretically, everything should continue as normal. However, whether a fraudster hijacks your bank with the stolen/lost details and steals your Child Benefit is another matter entirely.

Blimey, what absolute fkwits.

Doesn't surprise me. But id cards are of course, SUCH a good idea. Because govt depts can be trusted with data security, oh yes.

Slightly tongue in cheek, but that's kind of what I meant

Well, I'm another one who hopes this sounds the death knell for identity cards. I've always thought it was rude for a government to take your taxes, and then demand to know who the hell you are.

There were a couple of other threads on this and on one of them Senorapostrophe explained convincingly that the data on the disk on its own (ie without identification/other information, especially your date of birth) is not going to make committing fraud easy
Let's hope she's right
Apparently we've all got to cough for Northern Rock too. All right if I send you my contribution on a CD through the post Alistair Darling...?