Do Council workers deliberately try to trick people?

hy..mostly they are just incompetent and try to piss people off...i don't know why,but it's like this all over the globe.they like to push people to the edge of their patience and then if you may talk to them on an arrogant or nervous tone they even get cocky with you acting like you would have no reason to be nervous for...

it's really upset, you should protest.

i know in some place the staffs do things like that. it also connect with the political system.

anyway the world is on progress. it will be less and less.

It's perhaps a bit of both in your case. There are standard requirements in most cases with a list of optional ones which they can require in order to check that people are being straight with them.

The fact is, unfortunately, that many people do try to get benefits dishonestly and while I am sure that you are not, the less straightforward your case sounds to the authorities, the more hoops you may be made to jump through in order to get what you want (and deserve). Since there are so many complicated checks to be made, it often happens that one person can forget what is needed and have to ask for it later.

All in all, it can be very frustrating for the applicant and it certainly appears that the 'system' is against you but, really, it is not like that. The 'system' does take it's time and does have to try to protect itself. You have to understand that they don't know that you are honest and so have to judge every case on its merits. The only way to deal with it is to patiently complete all the tasks they set (remember all the fairy stories where the guy has to complete three impossible tasks to gain the princess' hand!) and to sigh resignedly when they set even more and just complete them with a smile!

Council workers in the offices are a law unto themselves. You're lucky they sent you the letter four days later, it's normally four months before they tell you they can't deal with your claim because they haven't got the right information.
Just do what they ask and hope they can sort it before Christmas.

I know what you mean, my husband had been laid off work and we got to wait up to 6wks before we will get any housing benefits as this is how long it will take them to sort it all out, ok, they do back date it, but how are we supposed to manage in the mean time, its the same with dole money, 6 weeks wait for that to. I guess there is always fresh air to live on.