Simon Collyer v Colchester Council, Tendring District Council and Job Centre Plus - my story
I spent 2002/06 living in South Africa and on my return, slowly made a fresh start. I shared a house, and later moved to my own luxury flat. Steve, a friend I had made in this house, was suffering from depression, and I suggested he moved in with me. Steve pulled out of the deal, leaving me with all of the rent, and then tragically he committed suicide by hanging himself from the landing of our former house, just a week later.For reasons too complex to go into detail, I lost my driving licence under controversial circumstances, and the Justice Organisation was formed to put a wall cabinet of reading spectacles in police stations with holding cells. I met with my team the; Rt. Hon Vernon Coaker, then, Minister of State for Security, Counter-Terrorism, Crime and Policing, with Bob Russell, my MP (Lib-Dem) in the Houses of Parliament, and at a second meeting with Divisional Commander Ch. Supt David Wakelin, Head of Corporate Development, Association Chief Police Officers (Acpo).
1.3 million People are detained each year and 65% of people over 40 need reading spectacles. Both parties, the government minister and Acpo, were keen to run a trial, but Essex Police were so hostile to looking at this new idea, they even refused to meet me initially.
Having lost my driving licence, I needed a new internal sales job. I planned to start as sales director for a luxury lifestyle magazine. Losing my job and my income was a huge blow, but I worked out if I cobbled together all the cash I could muster, I would have enough to last two months in the job, travelling from Colchester to London before I saw the commission rolling in, or so I hoped! I paid my rent to make sure if the worse came to the worse I would have a roof over my head.
I was moving to a cheaper place after a year in my flat, as I could no longer afford my nice home, I was starting a new Housing Benefit Claim (self-employed) and claiming a run-on payment for rent from my last claim. I carefully checked with Colchester Council on March 7th 2008 that I would be paid on-time my run-on payment, due around April 16th/18th 2008.
The Colchester Council messed up, they combined the two actions together and I was not paid until mid-May; 26 days later in fact. Daily I was telephoning the Council and I was spending as much time trying to find out when my payment would be made, as doing my job. Job Centre Plus and the Councils assume people have all the time in the day to stand in a queue or wait for call centres to respond, but when you are sitting in front of a new CEO expecting you to be working on behalf of the company, not managing your council relations, this is not a very satisfactory situation.
I ran out of travel money and was then forced to resign. Finding fares is a real barrier to work and travel to London does not come cheap. I spent ages chasing the Colchester Council – I was furious.
I took my case to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) fed-up with the could-not-care-less attitude of the Colchester Council. Instead of apologising the Council wrote to me with an aggressive attitude, and said; they did not have to abide by the LGO’s decisions, which I thought was an incredible response. They were saying; ‘take us to the LGO and you’re wasting your time’.
Colchester Council bullies people who make claims against the Council or challenge their version of events. A motorist whose new alloy wheels we damaged by potholes sent a bill to the Council and was shocked when they accused him of fraud. The case even made my local newspaper. This type of behaviour is normal.
I took my case to the Local Government Ombudsman, it became clear they were going to try and exonerate the Council. After months of argument they accepted that the Council had been wrong to combine the two issues and holding up my run-on payment while they established a new claim. If a run-on payment does not ‘run-on’ I argued; it is not helping people get established in a sustainable job.
The LGO reluctantly accepted this, but in summing up they came up with a formula, that if the cheque was posted it would take six days to arrive and it would have arrived the day after I resigned. Although they agreed Colchester Council were in the wrong they said; ‘There was No Injustice’.
This was a ridiculous argument, if you knew a cheque was in the post you might say to a new ‘employer’ things will be a bit difficult for me the next day or two, but I am keen on the new job and want to make a success of it, please just bear with me’. With no payment in sight, and my case not even been looked at yet in the Council system, and no money to buy a rail ticket that was it, my job was at an end.
I was now unemployed again, then my landlord said it was not his policy to let to unemployed people, so my civil-rights, not for profit; Justice Organisation, has petitioned the EU to stop discrimination against the unemployed in housing advertisements ‘No DSS’. We feel it is bad policy to create enclaves of unemployed people, like the largest housing estate in Europe outside Manchester with 70% unemployment. We argue, if all you ever meet are unemployed people, your expectations will drop and you’re unlikely to get that chance meeting that will find you a new job. Keeping the unemployed in society, not on its fringes, on crime ridden run-down estates, is vital.
I had been planning a new venture, importing Topper sailboats into the UAE with a City backer. On moving to a new house share in Manningtree, while waiting for this to start, Job Centre Plus gave me the wrong deposit and removal expenses, (Crisis Loan) claim forms, for when moving. When my case was heard a year and a half later, the Independent Case Examiners (ICE) said; basic JCP staff members are not trained decision makers. If JCP staff gives you the wrong advice you can query it. I was given the wrong advice, the forms had post-it notes stuck to them when the ICE took my file for examination, the evidence was still in place, and I had been incorrectly advised. The JCP were not liable however.
My landlord was a biker in his 50’s and he was off to see his girlfriend in Russia. I would have the place to myself till I went to Dubai. I even let myself in, as he left a day or so before.
Tendring District Council lost my Housing Benefit forms and I completed another set. I should have paid my landlord on October 16th and his e-mails then started to get progressively nastier. They were so excessive, that I initially thought it was form of bad humour, but they became very threatening and libellous. This was a time a UK biker had been shot dead on a motorway. My landlord pressed for eviction and brought his solicitor into the picture, but his solicitor made it clear he was distancing himself from my landlord and his personal threats. The landlord was eventually paid on the 28th October by the Council.
I contacted Essex Police, and they said my landlord was harmless, just a bit eccentric, they then pointed out he had just spent six months in prison for firearms offenses. He was obviously that harmless I thought! It later turned out he had other convictions for drugs, and he alleged he was jailed for a night in Russia, after his girlfriend ‘thought’ he had assaulted her, he said!
As the police would do nothing, I called in Tending District Council. The Council created the impression they were going to brush the matter under the carpet. My landlord returned and after a tense few days in the house, we made our peace. I was moving back to Colchester but two days before I was due to leave I came home to find all my goods outside and the house locked up. The police were called, but they suggested I moved into a hotel. My landlord had been drinking Vodka for three days and the friendly mood in the house had changed again.
I stayed one night in Manningtree, and moved into a hotel in Colchester. This time the Crisis Loan forms for rent deposit and removal expenses were lost by Job Centre Plus at the Basildon Delivery Centre (BDC). Daily the BDC were telling me my case was nearing the top of the pile and on December 2nd 2008 I was told they had no record of the forms I had sent in recorded delivery. They had told me what I wanted to hear, that was all, no one had actually checked. There had been other mistakes too.
I was much stressed, I had little money and the Dubai project was off due to the growing recession.
I spent two weeks in a hotel and the Job Centre Plus sent my cheque, not to me, but back to my landlord! When I finally was paid all the money for rent and a deposit this went to pay for the hotel and I had no option but to move into Colchester Night Shelter, sharing a room with one chap out of prison with 25 cases of GBH who did not like my snoring he said!!
Neil Brettell the JCP’s Area Manager for admitted they had lost the documents and I admired his honesty but the JCP later argued that there was ‘No Injustice’.
I was in desperate shape at this time, but everything was saved thanks to my removals man Anton G Lufti, who drives a 1959 Bedford van. Anton let me put my clothes and goods in his late parents house that was awaiting a buyer for, and but for him I would have lost everything as I had no money for storage. He was like a Good Samaritan that appeared from nowhere.
After two months in the Night Shelter, with myself spending Christmas there, I misjudged some small money I had coming in. The Night Shelter run by Colchester Council was very assertively run. Nightly we would have to queue up to see if we could get in. It was about as cheerful an experience as queuing for the gas chambers at a concentration camp. My debt of £12 could not be paid that night on the door, and on the worst night for years in six inches of snow, in January 2009 I had to stay outside. The Army Chaplin on the door, as door manager, would not even let me in, to get warm clothes.
The Night Shelter which is supported by Colchester Council, even put outside a pregnant girl on other occasions They were very ruthless. I pointed out the dangers to the Health and Safety inspectorate, but they said, there were no rules governing Night Shelters. I had to sneak into the Essex University library several miles away after a walk in the snow to dry my clothes on the hot pipes that night, track suit bottoms and trainers. There was thick slush and show outside and I was cold and soaking. As the library shut, I sat in the cafe till ‘chucking out time’ past midnight, then I slept in a common room, pretending to the cleaners in the morning be a visiting professor, an action that might have saved my life.
I had been under great stress and I felt close to the end the next day, I had two more days before I had a benefit cheque arriving. I then had a brainwave. If I could get to Braintree I could pawn my watch and get back into the Night Shelter. On the way there, I had a call from the April Centre, a charity that works with the Night Shelter and helps people in my situation, and they found a place for me in a shared house. The Night Shelter provided excellent food, and the mistakes people make it to stay in a hotel out of pride or fear, but many of the people were really nice. They all had a personal story of a calamity that had happened to them. Some personal stories were amazing. One young couple had lived in a tent in the woods for months, just trying to save a few hundred pounds for a flat deposit. I came to admire people I once might have classed as failures, and I realized how vulnerable we all are in reality.
In the new house my GBH friend was another tenant, and was back on the drink and drugs. Built like a young Ronnie Kray, and about as reasonable to negotiate with, he was starting to throw his weight around. Luckily, I was moved to where I am now, my own flat inside a block of others. It took months for me to get my clothes and goods back, I had to wear the same clothes every day, for five months, but I was already developing business plans and new ideas.
In April/May 2010 I won my first case against the JCP. The problems could have been sorted out in minutes and yet the file was an inch thick, the Independent Case Examiner did a brilliant job and I won £482 in damages. The cost though in ICE time would cost thousands, if measured in solicitor’s hourly fees terms. The work created by these stupid mistakes was scandalous.
Tendring District Council did not stay in contact with me. I talked to MP Bob Russell about the ‘inertia to do nothing by councils’. Colchester is Bob’s area, Tendring Council is not. Bob said that if councils compensated people, Council Tax might go up. When I found the Colchester Council were Lib-Dem controlled, (his party), instead of taking Bob’s advice ‘to move on’ I decided to ‘stand and fight’.
The TDC took a whole year for their OWN Legal Department to look at my case and they formed a view:’ it was felt we did not have a strong case and it is not in the public interest to pursue the matter ’that was on the 25th September 2009. Yet in time both two solicitors and the police had said in their opinion there was a case to answer - it consisted of; Harassment, Libel and offenses under the Malicious Communications Act. I was told it was the Tendring District Council who had to act.
As the TDC were not going to prosecute, a year later I took my case to Essex Police, who said this was a ‘summary offense’ and it was now too late to open a case against my landlord. I asked if they would put that in writing, however the police refused. I took my case to the Independant Police Complaints Authority (IPCC). Inspector Jay of Essex Police appointed to deal with the matter said the police had been wrong not to put their reasons for not prosecuting my landlord in writing, but in her investigation she could not find the officer who had made that decision, nor the original officer at Mistley police station who had taken no action against my gun owning landlord.
Now I had two solicitors’ opinions. To top that, the Essex Police had put in their letter that ‘it does appear that offenses had been committed’ after they reviewed the considerable number of e-mails.
I then turned the tables round, and I asked Inspector Jay to carry out a criminal investigation into Tendring District Council. I argued could it be possible ‘gross negligence’ could have occurred if the TDC who have a mandate to tackle anti-social behaviour, fail to do anything.
Inspector Jay then stopped all communication with me, and failed to respond to e-mails and letters. The Chief of Colchester Police assigned another officer, to look into the situation, and although Inspector Jay was given a mild ticking-off in a letter, the IPCC have this case to consider if that was sufficient.
The TDC, now aware of my unhappiness with their performance have written to me with details of their complaints procedure. As I have learned; these internal reviews rarely achieve anything significant and an appeal to the LGO is the route to have the matter ‘summarily whitewashed’. The LGO are getting more complaints than any other Ombudsman, and my concern is that as public spending is cut more and more people will suffer injustice.
I am taking advice, but I may publicly challenge the TDC to appoint an outside body or a judge to review their performance. Someone (allegedly) committing criminal offenses has got away scot-free and in order to restore confidence in the Council, I believe an external review from a source they cannot easily influence is needed.
Following all these troubles, this Christmas in 2009/10 we had a tenant who held drug fuelled parties in our block. Nicknamed ‘Yardie’ he certainly was not a trainee accountant! I called in the Colchester Council, Anti-Social Behaviour team - part of the Environmental Department.
The Council failed to contact myself or my fellow tenants. The councils solicitors charge around £1,400 for four hours work, so after two and a half months of parties every night that started in the evening, going onto the next day, with girls shooting up on drugs, blood in our sink in the morning and music going onto into the next day causing insomnia, depression and other effects, where it would be impossible to hold down a job, I sued Colchester council for £3,000 in damages.
The Council failed to respond at all, and a CCJ was entered by the Magistrate and a Warrant of Execution issued. However the Council have just asked to have the matter ‘stayed’ claiming that they never received the documentation, which the Court is absolutely clear they have sent.
I have written a cryptic letter to the Court about the growing patter of lost documents, and I have asked the Information Commissioners to investigate.
Last week I started my new job, and I called the Job Centre Plus from the office in Redbridge. The Job Centre Plus said they could not pay my self-employed credits for three weeks; I had missed signing one day in a year and a half. Not signing once (in the last 26 weeks) and that action disqualified me from a rent run-on payment. When I heard this news, once again I was forced to resign.
The JCP Labour Market Survey computer closes down claims once you get to a 100 lines of data, they then paid your claim clerically a day later but this meant I was paid two days later as my JSA payment straddled a weekend. Saddled with all the loans for moving to pay back, this was very significant on my microscopic budget.
I had written many several times, even officially appealed, and at the request of the Independent Case Examiners written to manager of my local Job Centre Plus. Yet none of this correspondence has ever been replied too.
I am an industrious person, an entrepreneur. Not a confrontational person by nature. The terrible blight being made on people’s lives by the Councils and Job Centre Plus is actually creating unemployment and the ‘benefit culture’ as we know it. Our ‘do nothing councils’ with their 9-5 attitude and the hopeless organisation of the JCP is problems that are at the heart of our societies benefit dependency culture.
Signing on is such a mission that people are less inclined to sign-of; it is like having a lifebelt when your ship sinks. You can swim to shore and get a job, but it was such a fight to get a lifebelt you cling to what you know. One mistake and an angry landlord and you can be on the streets, one error and you have nothing to eat.
Our public services live in different society to the rest of the UK, of understaffed companies, people toiling hard over long hours, or sitting idle with the growing culture of alcohol, drug abuse and boredom. Schemes like ‘New Deal’ used forced labour and people who go on them are classed as in ‘training’ so when the scheme ends they are a New Claimant. There are no long term unemployed - the manipulation of the system by the Labour Government saw to that.
The ‘dirty government’ of the last decade and more, has created a culture of lies and miss-information.
Organisations that cover up council mistakes by committing injustice like the LGO must be disbanded. The people who fail to uphold the law, and then cheat the public need to be brought to justice as individuals.
As one London Borough Council, Public Relations Officer (PRO) once said to me; ‘If you were caught having sex with a goat in the Council Chamber you could not be sacked, you would have to be sent for re-training’.
Above all else there needs to be established a relationship where people and their organisations actually feel accountable for their errors, and that this culture of lies, deceit and spin to cover up mistakes is brought to an end.
The JCP continues to send me Self-Employed Credit cheques for £50 each week. When I took them back, the Job Centre finance officer said he had been with the JCP nine years and had never heard of this scheme. Those in power have grand ideas, but in the JCP branches, lack of training means if you asked the same question of ten different staff, you could get ten different answers. A retail CEO in the private sector would we be touring his branches, making sure their staff were on the ball, not sitting at head office in another world.
We need public servants who see their role as serving the public, who recognise that, an honest an accountable society can only come from having an honest, accountable, and transparent government at the centre. If only our councils spent as much money and effort, avoiding mistakes rather than using lawyers to cover up their failings. If they are charged with up-holding the law and they do not do their job, either through laziness or because they covering up mistakes, they should face personal prosecution, and be treated no differently than a lazy postman who throws away the mail. They have failed all of the public, not just one individual.
I refuse to give in, and I am going to carry on fighting for justice for myself, but also for all the others who deserve the same.
| Simon COLLYER CEO and founder Justice Organisation 19 May 2010 |
 |
[Back to the top]