Practices and procedures employed and the legal authority to share information with external organisations in relation to the investigation of benefit claims

In conclusion to the nature of some of my 2010 FOI requests thus far, I would say that the authorities involved are very good at skirting round the truth and often actually contradict themselves. I actually learned from the NHS Central Services in Leeds that Bradford council have to make requests for information on headed paper, stating the nature and purpose of requesting the information.

Many officials such as those in the DWP hide behind dubious collective mailing addresses and call centres. People have the right, in my opinion to have phone numbers for individual DWP or authority departments and should not have to ring 0845 numbers. Gone are the days when a citizen can walk in off the street and get their DWP complaint dealt with there and then.

Many millions of people claim some form of benefit, not just the unemployed but those who are entitled to ‘top up’ benefits or rebates. Anyone who claims any government benefit or rebate has to supply a lot of very detailed very personal information to benefit departments, plenty for them to pose as you when they use blaggers to check out your information.

A blagger poses as you on the phone when checking you out. Another name for a blagger is a tracing agent for a debt collection company or private detective agency. You are the mark or the target. Although councils have a legal right to make certain checks on claimants, they have a named person who is allowed to make the requests and theses requests leave a paper trail which has to be audited. Councils are not too bothered about Article 8 of the Human Rights Act because in some cases it allows information in proportion to be sought, but this has to be in proportion.

But who will enforce your rights? Well firstly, within Bradford Council, many of the people who run it don’t actually live in Bradford. They generally live over the border in Leeds, Kirklees, Wakefield or Skipton area. They run the Bradford council offices then go home to another local authority altogether, bumper Bradford pay packets in tow, to their boxy prosperous detached properties elsewhere. The people of Bradford are therefore being short-changed in more ways than one.

Bradford Council liaises with the ombudsman service in advance and figures show the ombudsman rarely agrees with the citizen. Bradford Council run a ‘puppet’ complaints department where the man in charge of complaints doesn’t bother answering them.

There appears to be some form of corruption going on in the revenues and benefits department of Bradford council along with their complaints department and it also infects several departments that they liaise with in the DWP.

Whereas it is absolutely necessary without doubt to catch benefit cheats, Bradford Council frequently abuse the system and use the facilities of their own investigation departments to run personal vendettas against innocent people that they personally don’t like and try to get them harassed by both private tracing agents and departments of the DWP.

The corruption is so bad in this field that Bradford Council should actually be investigated by Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for communities and Local Government who can be contacted at www.communities.gov.uk and www.ericpickles.com

It is fair to say that Bradford council uses blaggers and that their department headed by Harry Singh uses illegal methods to obtain information and also to personally harass claimants Terry Singh doesn’t like. The CIS system is also misused as it is possible to bypass data protection procedures when using it.

Martin Stubbs in assistant director for Bradford Council’s revenues and benefits department (which includes council tax) is a hard liner. He’s got a degree at Leeds University and prides himself on being the ‘hard man’ of council tax. Sick people are abused and made bankrupt by Mr Stubbs at the drop of a hat so much so that he was mentioned in The Guardian newspaper. Mr Stubbs apparently lives in Wakefield in yes, you’ve guessed it – a boxy detached, but he comes to Bradford to throw his weight around the people of Bradford daily.

Bad boys Harry Singh, Jagdeep Kang (according to the council information) and Mushtaq Ahmed (complaints) keep the claiming and complaining public in check and that’d even before we get on to Phil Holmes the Bradford CCTV camera boss. You see nasty little cameras staring down from the new ‘Urban’ park. Some of the cameras even have windscreen wipers and the cameras are used to covertly spy on yes you’ve guessed it - benefit claimants around town. Its not about who gets mugged apparently, its about who is claming benefits be it 5p, £5.00, or £250, the amount doesn’t matter, shop security guards are radioed through to tell them to be on the look out for – yes benefit claimants - the corrupt council decides it does not like, oh and the rest as well, because if you claim benefits, Bradford council will want to watch both you and your shopping habits on their corrupt –a-cam CCTV.

Then going on to gritting, yes, once again Bradford gritting big wig manager Dave Mazurke, leaves Bradford’s hills pitifully short of grit in snowy weather, before returning home to Halifax.

Interestingly, all the information contained herein was legally and freely obtained from public sources.

NOTE this is not a political discussion, but a summary of the information received and the general attitude of the authority towards such requests.