London Calling

Life is full of surprises.  Stumbling around Direct Gov I learned that it was possible to get an unexpected telephone call about my not so private affairs.

Despite being signed up for unwanted calls to be blocked it does happen from time to time that some get through.  A recent run of calls came from the USA claiming to be about medical research and would I mind telling them this and that.

Luckily, they mentioned to add veracity a medical school that I was all too familiar with so it took only half a second to realise that the calls were certainly a fake.

My usual response to these is a polite terse comment to the effect that we are not interested.  What I think is not said because I do not want to cause the operatives of the NSA or GCHQ etc. who have the misfortune to monitor my calls to swoon at the use of barrack square verbiage.

But when I saw that there is an outfit called the Benefits Integrity Centre my reaction is that any call saying they were from such a place and asking for the name of my bank account would certainly cause an adverse reaction.

The full text is below, the bit I really like is at the very end, it says "is there anything wrong with this page".

One could have a lot of fun with that.

Benefits Integrity Centre Information:

A Benefits Integrity Centre (BIC) may contact you to review your benefits claim - this is called a claim review.
A BIC may contact you if you’re claiming:

• Employment and Support Allowance
• Incapacity Benefit
• Income Support
• Jobseeker’s Allowance

If you’re contacted by a BIC they will ask for information similar to the information you gave when claiming benefit. The BIC will tell you when you need to provide them with the information.

If you don’t tell them in time, your benefit payments may be stopped.

You should check that any letter, text or phone call from a BIC is genuine.

Letters and forms

Any letters and forms will have the Jobcentre Plus logo.
Contact Jobcentre Plus to find out if a letter you’ve received from a BIC is genuine. Use the number on the letter Jobcentre Plus sent you about your benefit. They’ll be able to tell you if a BIC is checking your claim

Phone calls

When a BIC phones you, they’ll ask some security questions to check your identity.

You’ll never be asked for your bank account number or sort code to check your identity. You will be asked for the name of your bank as part of the review.

Text messages

The BIC sends text messages as reminders to:

• return forms
• tell them about changes in your circumstances

Text messages from a BIC will show the phone number as “Jobcentre Plus” or “Jobcentre +”.

The message will be for information only - you’ll never be asked to reply by text message.

Appeal a BIC decision

You have the right to appeal if you disagree with a decision made by a BIC. You will be told how to appeal in the letter the BIC sends you.

Is there anything wrong with this page?

 End.

Whatever next?