Wednesday 9 January 2008

Confused? You soon will be

I have to pay my income tax in the next few days so I dug out the form that the taxman sent me. It was mailed from an office in Cumbernauld, even though my tax office is in Bedford. If I choose to mail in my payment, the return envelope is addressed to Bradford, but the payment will actually be credited via a branch of Alliance and Leicester in Bootle, for the account of the Bank of England.... in London!

The Government has always tried to ensure that areas away from London get a fair share of public sector jobs, which is fair enough, but you have to wonder if things may have got a bit out of hand. And it's not just the public sector: I regularly get stuff from the banks that I deal with where the point of mailing is completely dfferent from the office I am supposed to contact if I have any questions, and neither of them is anywhere near my own branch. This is all done in the name of efficiency, but can anyone really prove that they are saving money this way?

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