Pension statement for 2011-2012 tax year -very cross!

I get a P60 for my Teacher's and Civil Service Pension, but I have to write and ask the DWP every year for a statement of my retirement pension to give to the French tax office if they ask for it (they never have so far).
I can also look up my other two pensions on line (Teacher's Pension On-line) but that facility is also not available from the DWP.
If I don't receive the statement on time, I have to show the letter telling me what the new pension is going to be from April and just multiply it by 52.

ayse It is the same with HMRC. If they even get round to answering the phone they can be completely useless and also very patronising when they realise they are talking to a pensioner. One one occassion I was asked (in a not very pleasant manner) "and why do you think you are due a tax rebate" to which I replied "I have all my P60s and a calculator, why do you think I am not?" Sometimes they send the same thing twice in the same envelope and on other occassions they have sent me a tax code, followed a couple of days later by a different one and then again the correct one.

I really think they need someone to go in and sort them out and they certainly should not be immune to redundancy. It bothers me that such incompetence is rewarded by inflation linked salary related pensions.

Rant over!

Alison, far from needing more redundancies, HMRC needs to employ many more trained inspectors, and stop relying on call centre staff who do not understand the complexities of the tax system. As a retired inspector, I frequently have to explain the rules to the young person on the phone, who is probably much cheaper to employ.

Anyone in these offices with any grey matter gets promoted to a higher grade, and rises up out of the pool. Those who remain are those with less ability.

HMRC sent me a leaflet entitled "Do you need to fill in a Self Assessment form?" Catergories listed were followed by a telerphone number which I rang. [it tooks ages to get a human voice!] ALL my details were taken with the promise of a reply in 14 days. Did it happen? No, so I've had to post off the form so I don't get caught out. Three weeks on they still haven't received it. AAAAHHHH.

Greatnan or make the rubbish people in the call centre redundant and put the trained people on the phones. I really can't understand what is so hard about PAYE, I have explained it to lots of non-UK staff many times!

The problem is that there are not enough fully trained inspectors. Self Assessment was introduced simply to get rid of the most experienced staff. Your tax return details are now keyed into a computer by a minimally trained Revenue Assistant. Inspectors carry out investigations when the computer programme picks up some anomaly or inconsistency. I heard a spokesman for HMRC admit on the Today programme that they needed to start training inspectors urgently, as each one,once trained, generated many times their salary in taxes.
There are many more areas of tax than PAYE, which is , or should be , simple. There are different regimes for the self-employed, corporations, partnerships, inheritance tax, CGT, etc. etc. It takes a minimum of three years to cover the basics - we had to learn 300 tax cases off by heart and most of the contents of the huge manuals, plus enough book-keeping to be able to read a set of accounts. This is followed by several years of further training 'on the job'.