Waste of money

[BlueToffee]

Yesterday Mrs BT and I BOTH received letters from the pensions people telling us that our winter heating allowance will be paid within the next three weeks.

Now, how much does it cost to generate a letter like that, £2.50 perhaps?

With over 12 million pensioners in the UK that amounts to £30m, what a waste of public money, and that's just the tip of the iceberg!

Thoughts?

[albaqwerty]

Licking an envelope was foul.. If the gum had a flavour of something nice, gin and tonic, for example.......

[commoner]

....your point BT is made even more relevant in my case...mrs comm and I have had our 100 pounds each in our bank accounts for 3 days now and I will guarantee that the letters will come next week ...waste of money?...this happened last year too!

[commoner]

lol alba...black puddin' flavour for me please :-)

[friedgreentomato]

You the government departments can't win, if they don't send out letters as in the case of child benefit they get complaints and if they do they get complaints!

Also commoner in your case it is Royal Mail most likely to be holding your letter up - funnily enough the government department has no control over them!

[commoner]

Not grumblin' FgT....just stating a fact....I'm more than happy to receive the fuel allowance..unlike some I really do need it...

They also obviously know my e-mail address so an e-mail would do nicely...I am paperless in all my other stuff.power, banking, etc...save the rainforests and the planet I say...:-))

[friedgreentomato]

They are not allowed to send personal information via email as it is not a secure mode for sharing information.

[commoner]

Oh dear..letter it is then...makes decent printing paper on the back side and the envelopes come in handy so not all wasted..;-)

[factor-fiction]

This is an are where the DWP /government can't win.
If it didn't send letters out it would be criticised for not keeping pensioners informed.
If it sends them out people say it's a waste of money.
I think they probably have to send it to each pensioner so they can be sure each person gets the information, but it may also be more expensive to try to filter out the dual addresses.
Another factor is that they are probably wasting time answering queries and letters from people asking when it will be paid, so by sending out the letters they may get fewer queries.
Finally, I don't believe it be £2.50 a letter- that would mean £30 million. Bulk mailings are much cheaper than this.

[vulcan]

To those who say £2-50 is too dear are either guessing or know the actual cost and are not saying. Neither is very helpful.

[factor-fiction]

It's up to the OP to justify the £2.50 figure, vulcan.
But I have no doubt it costs much less- the database already exists and they already have the facility to send out letters. I've worked with bulk mail and wouldn't pay anything like that. They'll have struck a deal with Royal mail too.
Anyway, what is a reasonable amount to spend to keep pensioners informed and put their mind at rest about when they'll get their money?

[wolf63]

I would have thought that it was illegal to send a letter for your wife to you. What if she didn't want to know that she also would be receiving this money.

I am all for the government saving money but this way wouldn't work.

:-)

[parkie]

There is also the case that a letter notifies any carers and those children/siblings etc who have power of attorney to keep track of what was going into any person's account.
When my wife's stepmother died a few years ago, the letter of notification arrived re. her heating and her executor, who hadn't even though about it, was able to notify the relevant authorities that the bank account was now closed and no longer applicable.
Our allowances, joint £200, are due any time. Our car went wrong on Wednesday of this week and cost £234.
Oh well.