Coronavirus Diary 6 – The state owes me thousands, why don’t they know who I am?

It’s been a long day or so.  As I rush head-first towards bankruptcy I attempted to make use of a minor law change to allow people such as myself claim just over £90 a week, in stark contrast to everyone else who can claim up to almost £3,000 a month.

I waited on line for 8 hours.  8 hours!!!  Then was asked to verify my ID using either my passport or drivers licence.  Both of them are new but not so new they won’t be on the records.  I tried with several different government approved bodies and every single one of them rejected both of my very valid and active forms of identification.

It’s crazy, the application itself is accepted.  They know everything about me.  I’ve paid taxes for 32 years and technically HMRC taxes owe me many thousands of pounds as I prepaid a big chunk in October so I wouldn’t be tempted to overspend on house related purchases and because I don’t like owing anyone anything.

I don’t claim benefits, the reason I started my company was so I could try and earn money with out claiming unemployment money. I don’t have children and have spent my working life supporting society without being a burden upon it.

My mother and grandma died just after they reached 60 and so spent a life time earning and paying taxes but not drawing on old-age payments.   After all this, and countless phone calls, messages and even tweets I have got nowhere.

It’s all rather typical!

 

Stephen Liddell's avatar

By Stephen Liddell

I am a writer and traveller with a penchant for history and getting off the beaten track. With several books to my name including several #1 sellers. I also write environmental, travel and history articles for magazines as well as freelance work. I run my private tours company with one tour stated by the leading travel website as being with the #1 authentic London Experience. Recently I've appeared on BBC Radio and Bloomberg TV and am waiting on the filming of a ghost story on British TV. I run my own private UK tours company (Ye Olde England Tours) with small, private and totally customisable guided tours run by myself!

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