...after all it's only around 20 miles away.

This message has really come about after my posting elsewhere about delays in retrieving files from that black hole not far off the M66.

I know very little about Heywood and would be grateful for someone to shed more light on it. Is it run by the DWP or do those who manage it tender for the work or what? In fact does it actually exist or was the person I spoke to there yesterday just a computer aided voice at the end of a re-routed call to never never land ?

Who is on the other end of the DWP online requests for retrieval of files? who are the contractors who do the picking and dispatching and who are the couriers who collect and deliver files?

I don't supposed it matters as I'm assuming all delays are the responsiblity of the DWP but it would be good to have some info about it so I can mention it in my letter to our local MP.

(Now get that song out of your head if you can!)

I know very little about it either but I have this image of a vast warehouse with a ceiling you cannot see where malevolent gnomes scurry about, heard but never seen. Millions of yellowing files covered in dust lay in piles on endless shelves, filed at random, and it would take an eternity to find the one you are looking for.

The sign above the door says “abandon hope all ye who enter here”.

Yeh, me too. A bit like the warehouse at the end of the first Indiana Jones movie.

Heywood stores was signed over to Capita (You know the public service experts with a track record in excellent performance) in 2004.

I believe they still run it for the DWP.

I'm sure we'd all agree that the service has significantly improved since they took over.

The contract was worth £70million over 7 years - marvellous value for money I say.

David

This putative warehouse is obviously where they will (eventually) find 2 dusty CDs containing? - you know what!

Or maybe not.

Why do they pay £192000 a week for someone to lose files, when Inland Revenue will do it for free?

I take it we've all read the stories about acres of un-opened mail, low morale and (shock, horror, probe) wearing baseball caps (daily Mail. I like the bit about being warned over the tannoy system not to speak to the strangers and/or press for fear of being hung, drawn, quartered and even promoted - or alternatively being sacked as the sacrificial lamb........

...speaking of which, he's supposed to be tucked away in some hotel in the north east, in an effort to keep the press away from him - why? Who doesn't want whom talking to whom..............

Sue

Can't add anything to what has already been said but as Blackburn is my home town I thought I would give you a brief update on the town - we seemed to have misplaced most of the 10,000 holes that we had and the 1,000 mill chimneys - the town is now a very prosperous town with lots of regeneration going on - in fact most people who have not visited Blackburn for a few years do not recognise it. It's home and I am proud of it.

Shabir

Sorry, I've held back to this point, but the pedant in me can be contained no longer: Wasn't it FOUR thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire, rather than ten thousand?

Gives me an excuse to dust off the record player tonight to check...

it is four thousand holes, rather than ten. however it got us thinking about something much nicer than benefit hassles and woes for a little while and thats good enough for me.

4,000 holes - same number as DLA/AA claimants overpaid £26m in duplicate payments...

back on yer heads... : )

Ahh, the textual equivalent of Horlicks (c) (other warm malty beverages are available)....As I understand it, when the poor old house elves in DWP sites box up the files to go to Heywood they use some arcane bar coding system for the large shoe box that the files go in. There is also paperwork that indicates what's in the box. Loads of boxes go off to Heywood, where Capita staff diligently record what the paperwork says is in each box. The boxes are then filed in huge warehouses (think the closing scene in an old X-files episode), where the location of the bar coded box is recorded. 'Subfiles' can later be sent, which will be, for example, A2 review forms for IS, or renewal DLA forms. When these are sent they will somehow have to be amalgamated with the original shoe box contents (assuming the original was correctly listed by the house elves, then correctly filed). A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Anyway, that's as I understand it, and my level of understanding is diminishing. The more complex a system is, the more energy is required to maintain it, otherwise the system will descend into chaos. Entropy rules.

Its not elves that are doing it. Heywood is known as monkey town!

Just had a response from JCP to my complaint about delays and the fact that JCP and Heywood give conflicting advice and never accept blame -

"...there is obviously a problem with our file retrieval procedures... thank you for bringing this issue to my attention..."

What's the flamin point

They knew four years ago that there was "a problem with their retrieval system"! I had a LTHAW appeal at the end of 2003 and it took them four months to find the file (which had been sent to be archived against the instructions of the DM, who suspected the decision was ripe for an appeal). The excuse I got at the time was that they had failed to set up a proper indexing and retrieval system when they started storing files in Heywood.

Lies, damn lies and statistics.

More basic than that - we were advised by a senior member of staff that Heywood is an entirely paper based manual storage stystem and cases are filed by NINo. There is no IT system linked to the storage process - not even the sort of basic bar code system once used for paper files in local benefit offices introduced 2 decades ago. As there are millions of files stored at Heywood you can appreciate the chances of miss filing and 'lost' files.

Files are retrieved by a daily manual bulk search and files retrieved are then despatched to DBU/DBC's or where ever. Senior managers can request a special individual case search.

Is this where they keep (or los) all the old IB85s for people who have just failed a PCA after being on benefit since 2000?

ariadne said:

"Is this where they keep (or los) all the old IB85s for people who have just failed a PCA after being on benefit since 2000?"

Nah, they'll have destroyed those after 14 months as "no further business use for them" ....
;-(

Oooo you little monkey - how could you even suggest it