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| Marc, background and bad experience |
Since april 1994 Marc is self-employed without income and
since august 2004 he receives unemployment benefits. From 2001 he actively
looked for a job, but found out that an autodidact, without "real"
papers, of a certain age has little to no chance. From juli 2002 he
asked help from the local government to find a
paying job,
because ending up in social benefits is not his style. All the time,
especially from 1994, he helps others whenever he can, but never asks for or
receives any payment. Lots of tests and try-outs from several
specialist and specialised bureau's follow and they all lead to the
same conclusion. Applying for jobs is a waste of time, he should network as much
as he can and one of them even said : "Find a rich women" !!
His voluntary work covers a lot of areas, so there is a large number of people "from all sorts" he encounters in his network.
Volontary "work"
He helps individuals with their post, paperwork, taxes, sorts out their
debts and accompanies them when they are summoned. Older people that
suffer light dementia can stay longer in their trusted environment,
families where someone is dying are relieved, et cetera. From the
outside looking in he can propose improvements in the execution of
rules, policies and regulations. Mostly "through the backdoor" but,
when needed and of added value, he uses the public inquiry at the
town council. He supports, and has the support of, many lovely people
who strive for a community where respect is earned, where no one is, or
feels, excluded and all feel responsible. Utopia ? No ! With the words
of Kazantzakis in mind : "Reach where you can not", they say : "Never
stop trying". Everybody that feels treated correctly, becomes a better
person. Energy spent on finding reasons not to try your best is wasted.
Yep... and nobody is perfect !
Accompanying others that are on social benefit he relieves civil
servants and helps them to get the correct information for their
decisions. Most of them show their appreciation and help out by
giving inside information that Marc can use to help improving the
system. Some rotten apples hate his guts for taking away their "power",
especially when they loose court cases. These people should not have a
job in the social system. They ruin the work and the image of
their colleagues, but are bloody hard to get rid of.
Bad experience
The move of the social service to the "middle ages" in Helmond
includes, apart from our "job seeking" civilians, several civil
servants and everybody is reassigned. Marc is "luckily" assigned to a
civil servant that hates his guts. We will spare you all the details,
but during the holidays of December 2010 Marc is cut off from his benefit
for very vague, unlawful, reasons. The civil servant abuses the flaws
in the procedures and Marc is forced into procedures of objection. Marc
knew this was coming so he made sure he has everything on paper, mostly
through mails. The behaviour of the civil servant is bad enough to
launch an official complaint. The complaint procedure in Helmond
stipulates that his boss has to handle it. The butcher approves
his own meat ! The complaint is "officially", by the boss, declared unfounded with no
real motivation at all. Marc is not surprised, because he knows the
boss from the past when he had another job, see here.
A regional board accepts to handle the objection to the declaration of
unfoundedness and also accepts to handle an official complaint against
the boss.
No one in his right mind understands what is being done to Marc, but
they can't change it directly. Once a procedure has started, it has (!?) to
be followed. In a way Marc is happy that he has to go through this
ordeal. It allows him to show the flaws in the system quicker. Many, who are
mishandled by these rotten apples, have not got the tools to withstand
the heat. It shows, amongst others, the flaw in the complaint procedure
and points our council to the fact of how little influence they have on
how our civilians are treated in Helmond.
Marc is lucky to have friends and family that support him, not only
financially, but he shivers when he thinks about what this could do to
those that haven't got his stamina and support.
On march 31th 2011 the regional board establishes that the boss
was not allowed to handle complaints and rules accordingly. It is now
up to his bosses to see what this means for his job.......
On the 2nd of september 2011 we finally receive a
letter from the mayor of Helmond. Although we proved that the boss knew
that he was not allowed to handle the complaint, there seem to be no
repercussions. So basically the mayor signals his staff that it is ok
to defraud clients. We don't believe what we see and mail the mayor to
be sure, before we take further actions.
VICTORY : On august the 23rd of 2011 the highest court rules in Marcs
favour on all counts. He has to be repaid in full, including costs en
interest.
Now the real work starts to improve internal
control and procedures, so that no one in the future will be maltreated
by a bad civil servant and no one will ever have to go through a
similar ordeal.
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