Kaleidoscope

I had a bad feeling about this CD from the DWP that I mentioned yesterday. And when I get a gut feeling I stay with it.

It just had a PO address in Belfast on the envelope, nothing else. And just my name on the CD. No information, no covering letter, nothing

I do not have a laptop to be able to play the CD so I went to the library. Library said they couldn't help me, but because it was the logo and government information I had to go to the council offices for help with this CD.

The council offices were worse than useless. One of the ladies at the council offices where I went yesterday afternoon said this CD was nothing much, just some articles for the blind and how to get free postage. She didn't play it for me even though I asked her to. On the front of the envelope that held the CD just said 'Articles for the Blind' and 'DWP'. Another of the ladies at the Council Offices insisted I must have subscribed to receiving Blind Articles and that I had forgotten, and that was all this CD from the DWP was. Nothing more.

I got back home. It was now dark. I hadn't wanted to go out that late on a foul rainy afternoon. And I still hadn't been able to access that information on the government CD. I could've posted the CD to a friend for them to open it up on their laptop. But that was going to take a few days, and I wanted and needed to know what was on it now.

I had the idea of rooting out an old CD player and my mini mic which I used with my initial cochlear processor, 2008. Old technology. Couldn't remember how to set it up.

It took me some time to set up this old equipment to play the CD on an old CD Player I haven't used in years. But it wasn't loud enough for Live Transcribe on the Android and I only had a partial transcript. Finally I got it loud enough with the aid of an old speaker for Live Transcribe to work properly, and I was finally able to read the spoken word on my Android phone. I saved the transcript.

I was shocked. All my personal details were spoken by this computer voice. Full birth date, other numbers, full national insurance number and more. Other full dates were on here, and qualifying dates for my Pension, and more details. It spoke of my bank details and gave partial figures, and gave the full unique identifying number with it. It spoke of my text number, partial details again. It had my full name and full address.

The automated voice goes on to say, "Making this decision (about my pension money and it gave financial details) is based solely on automated processing..." and then goes on to say if I object to the decision made by the automated processing, then I can ring this telephone number for free (I cannot because I am deaf) or I have to have someone in charge of my affairs who can act on my behalf. I have one month to appeal against this automated decision. The date on the CD is 6th November. I received this on the 20th November. And it said 1st class post on the envelope.

You can bet your bottom dollar I will be on to their Wolverhampton address today.

Who decided to create this CD letter? Many people receiving it will possibly discard it because on the envelope it said "DWP" with the words "Blind Artlcles". I can only asssume this was to throw people off the scent that this CD contained a lot of your full personal details. It had absolutely nothing to do with Blind People.

It was a very important letter. It was about my Pension money. But it wasn't a suitable method of communication for me, a deaf person. Who the heck decided this level of personal information needed to be sent through the post on a CD of all things. And by the way, the DWP do know of my hearing problems because a few years ago I set up something with them about suitable means of communication with me which I had to jump through some hoops to get. And all those details are still the same.

I subscribe to an organisation that helps people with these kind of issues. I will be emailing them this morning for advice, as well as directly contacting the DWP.

This is all time consuming.


Wildlife nighttime cameras
Fox & then Badger - Badger startles Jade
55 secs
https://youtu.be/PaujN0ePLBQ?si=eDHTI9gutnO3PzDo

No time for my usual more time consuming Creative which is usually a meditation for me. So a kaleidoscope in Laboscope of my bed cover.

Have your best day.

I need a cuppa and a nap first...