Yesterday I
looked on my blog, it has a new face, which I do not like. The statistics is
curtailed. The old statistics showed the countries in which my blog was most
frequented in any given week. But what surprised me most unpleasantly, my post
entitled “A confrontation” figured as “(Untitled)”. I clicked on it. I could
not believe what I saw. The post was completely mutilated:
“A discrepancy
Yesterday I received a letter from
the Pension Service 1 in Wolverhampton, which ends with a statement: ‘At 16
July 2020, the amount you still owe will be £ 1755.00’. Today I received a
letter from the Department for Work and Pensions, Debt Centre Nuneaton, which
begins with the words: ‘Amount owed £ 6737.78’.
Both letters have the same date: 16
July 2020. Both are dealing with the same thing. The Pension Service wrote: ‘We
have been asked to take money off your Pension Credit … Start date 3 August
2020, Total amount stopped £ 11.25’. The Debt Centre wrote: ‘We will take £
11.25 from your benefit every week, starting from the payment you are due to
receive on 03/08/2020’.
Interesting is the sequence in which
I received the two letters: After having digested the debt of £ 1755.00, I am
to swallow the ‘fact’ that my actual debt is considerably bigger. But the fact
is that
On November 22
‘On 12
This is not true, I was not repaying
a penny.
Your last question was “Can you
recall why you did not choose to pursue this at this stage [i.e. at the initial
stage]?” Prompted by your question, I have recalled that I did my best to do
so, as my exchange of letters with David Drew, who was my MP in those days,
indicates. David Drew wrote to me on 22
The letter from the Pension Service
of 6 October 2009 that stated “
These good intentions on the part of
the Pension Service failed to come into effect; I wrote to David Drew on the 10
It is good to see that the Citizens Advice Bureau
in Stroud is prepared to intercede in a case, which even a well-meaning MP
ultimately set aside as hopeless.”
I removed the mutilated text and put the original
text in:
“A discrepancy
Yesterday I received a letter from
the Pension Service 1 in Wolverhampton, which ends with a statement: ‘At 16
July 2020, the amount you still owe will be £ 1755.00’. Today I received a
letter from the Department for Work and Pensions, Debt Centre Nuneaton, which
begins with the words: ‘Amount owed £ 6737.78’.
Both letters have the same date: 16
July 2020. Both are dealing with the same thing. The Pension Service wrote: ‘We
have been asked to take money off your Pension Credit … Start date 3 August
2020, Total amount stopped £ 11.25’. The Debt Centre wrote: ‘We will take £
11.25 from your benefit every week, starting from the payment you are due to
receive on 03/08/2020’.
Interesting is the sequence in which
I received the two letters: After having digested the debt of £ 1755.00, I am
to swallow the ‘fact’ that my actual debt is considerably bigger. But the fact
is that I have never accepted that I owe the Pension Service or the
Department for Work and Pensions any money.
On November 22nd 2014 I
put on my blog the post entitled ‘The Citizens Advice Bureau intervenes’, from
which I quote:
‘On 12th November you
sent me a letter from The Pension Service addressed to you, in which Glyn Caron
wrote: “It must be remembered that Dr Tomin has been repaying this overpayment
since approximately 2009 without complaint.”
This is not true, I was not repaying a
penny. I never accepted that I was in any way indebted to Pension Service.
The Pension Service has been taking money off my Pension Credit – now from my
State Pension – since 2009.
Your last question was “Can you
recall why you did not choose to pursue this at this stage [i.e. at the initial
stage]?” Prompted by your question, I have recalled that I did my best to do
so, as my exchange of letters with David Drew, who was my MP in those days,
indicates. David Drew wrote to me on 22nd September 2009: “Thank
you for your e-mail of 17 September. I am sorry to hear about your problems
with Pension Credit. If you would kindly send me your National Insurance number
and a few more details of the problem, I am happy to look into this on your behalf.”
The letter from the Pension Service
of 6 October 2009 that stated “we will not be taking money for Overpayment
from your Pension Credit” may have been sent to me in response to David
Drew’s intervention.
These good intentions on the part of
the Pension Service failed to come into effect; I wrote to David Drew on the 10th of
January 2010: “I am sorry to bother you again concerning the alleged debt which
I am supposed to pay Debt Management of the Department for Work and Pensions. I
know that you are very busy and work very hard on behalf of your constituents,
and I, being a Czech citizen, cannot even give you my vote. Still, I should
greatly appreciate it if you asked Debt Management of the Department for Work
and Pensions and Paul Lewis at The Pension Service in Cardiff, on what basis
was the decision originally made concerning my alleged debt, on what basis it
was then cancelled, and on what basis it was made again.”
It is good to see that the
Citizens Advice Bureau in Stroud is prepared to intercede in a case, which even
a well-meaning MP ultimately set aside as hopeless.”
I checked it, it was on my blog in the correct way.
The only thing I did not know how to do was to remove the “(Untitled)” and
exchange it for “A discrepancy.”
About an hour later I looked again on my blog. The
text reappeared there in its mutilated form. At that moment I got really angry.
If it was Czechoslovakia of 1950s, or if it was China, I would not be
surprised. But we are in Britain. Again,
I put in the correct text. Today, 31/07/2020, the correct text is still in.
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