Click

Leo has stormed off into town after spending all morning on the phone with the DWP. In an uncharacteristic display of worry - usually that's my department - he called to find out when his ESA back payments are due to arrive. Their answer delivered no surprises, just the usual hopelessness: the Jobcentre "forgot" to close his JSA claim, so any ESA payments owed to him will not be released until this mistake is corrected.

Please note that this is the Jobcentre's mistake, yet Leo has to take responsibility for its correction.

I didn't expect an easy road when circumstances forced me into starting an ESA claim, closely followed by Leo a few weeks later. The initial lack of resistance surprised me, giving me a false sense of hope that this time, this time, everything would run smoothly. Yet the Jobcentre remained true to disappointing form, and failed at the bureaucratic stage.

These are not complex procedures at which they have failed. Operating a fax machine is not difficult, yet between the Jobcentre reception desk and the fax machine, my original medical certificates were lost. Clicking the "close claim" button on a computer screen seems pretty elementary to me, yet because someone didn't take the fraction of a second to do what they said they would, Leo's claim remains in limbo.

Perhaps I'm being too presumptuous. I have an NVQ in Business and Administration, so perhaps things like mouse clicks and fax machines would seem elementary to someone in my lofty, educated position. It makes you wonder why I spent almost a year on JSA whilst some Neanderthal in the Jobcentre was staring blankly at a computer screen, wondering how to make the "magic" happen.

Mistakes like these would never have been made on my watch - and you know why? I have the common sense to know that silly little errors like these have massive repercussions on other people's lives. Because that mouse click was never made, Leo and I now have to stretch an already difficult budget to another week - which means more late payment charges on our household bills, and less food in the cupboards. I have the sense of social responsibility to see how the ripples spread out from that single drop in the pond, how that one small failure becomes catastrophic further down the line.

The Jobcentre is the public face of a government department responsible for the welfare of those who find themselves in the position of being unable to provide for themselves. It is meant to be the hallmark of our advanced society and its responsibility to protect even the least of its members. So why does it constantly fail?