...
Municipal IT system automatically deprives citizens of cash benefits in violation of the law | India | DR For Rune Kastrup Madsen, the system ran on and on, no matter how many times he approached. Of 'Your help will be put down.' This is the clear message in the many identical letters that Rune Kastrup Madsen has repeatedly received from Dragør Municipality, even though the municipality has established that he has such a working ability that he can not work and therefore must not be reduced in benefits at all. - A system has been created which automatically reduces people in benefits. Fully automatic. ‘We take a little over 1,000 kroner a month of your benefit’ on a basis. times. Again and again, says Rune Kastrup Madsen, when he visits the caravan in Dragør, where he lives all year round. It is an IT system that automatically spits out letters and threatens the citizens that the help will be reduced and in the worst John Klausen, Professor of Social Law He is not the only one who has been automatically informed that he will be withdrawn. The case processing systems in all of the country's municipalities are set up to take off completely automatically, despite the fact that they have such a working ability that the municipalities must not deprive them of their help at all. It shows documents that Nyheder has received, and it confirms department manager at Jobcenter Randers, Per Damgaard Petersen: - If we do not intervene, the system will automatically print incorrect party consultation letters, and there will automatically also be errors in services. So the system is set up to automatically do something illegal unless Do you intervene? - Yes, unless we intervene. Exactly, explains department head Per Damgaard Petersen. Back that thousands of cash benefit recipients across the country have been illegally deprived of part of theirs. Now an automation in the system can therefore help to explain why. It appears, among other things, from a review that Randers Municipality has made of the area. The municipality has investigated why a number of them have been illegally lowered in accordance with the so-called 225-hour rule, despite the fact that the municipality has to the IT systems to have such a working capacity that they must be exempted from this rule. Here, it often plays a role that the systems automatically take action on the date that the caseworkers originally entered, Randers Municipality has found. - The biggest source of error is that we have not been able to extend this report, and thus the system goes looked out and, says Per Damgaard Petersen. This also applies in situations where they actually have such a ability to work that it would be illegal to deprive them of help. Most of the letters that Randers Municipality has sent should thus not have been sent out, Per Damgaard Petersen explains. - We have sent out three times as many parties' consultation letters as we have actually made decisions. And that is because there has been no basis for it, he says. In the caravan in Dragør, Rune Kastrup Madsen has received a whole strip of the kind of "threat letters", as he calls them. I call my caseworker at the job center and explains to her that I have received this letter. I think that's weird. Because I do not mean that I am subject to the 225-hour rule. She agrees with me. But then I receive another letter. And I contact the municipality again. And I'm receiving another letter. And this is how it continues for about 1½ years. Rune Kastrup Madsen, citizen of Dragør Municipality In seven of the letters, Dragør Municipality has repeatedly repeated exactly the same wording - "Your help will be put down" - to the great inconvenience of his life, he explains .- The first time I receive it, I get very nervous, says Rune Kastrup Madsen, who has autism and suffers from anxiety.- So it leads to some panic attacks until I get to contact my caseworker at the municipality, he says. But even Rune Kastrup Every time Madsen calls his caseworker and points out that he should not be pulled in, he still receives shortly after just a new "threat letter", he explains: - No matter what I did, and no matter how many I came with, then they just automatically entered my e-Box, says Rune Kastrup Madsen.2020.02.10: “Your help will be reduced per. April 1, 2020 ”2020.03.10:“ Your help will be reduced per. 1 May 2020 ”2020.12.10:“ Your help will be reduced per. February 1, 2021 ”2021.03.10:“ Your help will be reduced per. 1 May 2021 ”2021.05.10:“ Your help will be reduced per. July 1, 2021 ”2021.08.10:“ Your help will be reduced per. October 1, 2021 ”2021.09.10:“ Your help will be reduced per. 1 November 2021 “After his phone calls, Rune Kastrup Madsen has also received seven deferral letters, etc. Rune Kastrup Madsen's phone call to the municipality means that he has each time been prevented from being put down in practice. However, those who do not respond to the many letters in their e-Box, automatically risk losing part of theirs. Even if it is against the law, explains professor of social law at Aalborg University, John Klausen: - The consequence of this system will be that even if there is no basis for reducing the assistance, it means that if not respond to all these letters that come in the person's e-Box, then the help will be reduced. Despite the fact that there is no basis for it, and despite the fact that the municipality does not have new information that the person in question has actually been given a working capacity, John Klausen states. It makes it difficult for citizens to claim their right. Then you can deduct them in benefits, and then money is saved. And these are the weakest citizens in Denmark we are talking about here. Those who have the most difficulty entering the labor market. Rune Kastrup Madsen, citizen of Dragør Municipality After looking more closely at a selected group of single cash benefit recipients, Dragør Municipality has found that the municipality has illegally deprived of 27 help. How many of them have been drawn completely automatically because they have not responded to the letters in their e-Box, the municipality does not know, however, explains the director of welfare in Dragør Municipality, Asger Villemoes Nielsen: - We actually do not know. We had 27 - we found out - who had had their benefit reduced since 2017. And some of them may well have been reduced because they have received a letter but have not responded to the letter? - It is a possibility , he says. The problem arises, among other things, because the job centers' IT systems today are designed so that caseworkers can and must enter a date in advance for when someone with working ability will be able to work again. But it is not really known whether one will get his ability to work again and if so, when. Therefore, caseworkers have to enter a fictitious end date to be allowed to exempt a disabled person from being drawn in at all. This is explained by the department manager at Jobcenter Randers, Per Damgaard Petersen, and shows how on his computer screen: - I have to set an end date to be able to deviate from the 225-hour rule. But I do not know in advance when work ability will change. So I have to enter a fictitious end date, he says and enters a fictitious date and adds: - It's a problem. Because when the end date approaches, a party consultation letter will automatically be sent out, and will automatically stay if no one intervenes. Therefore, Randers Municipality will not only have abolished the current requirement that you must always in advance enter an end date in the IT system. The municipality will have changed the system so that you can not enter such a date in advance: - You should remove the possibility to set an end date completely, so that you completely unintentionally avoid that for someone who has a work ability, explains Per Damgaard Petersen and Asger Villemoes Nielsen, adds: - It is clear that if you remove the field where you can insert a date, which generates an automatic sending of a letter to you, then you avoid the problem that you have talked to a about here in Dragør. But the automation in the IT systems can not excuse the many municipalities that have illegally deprived and have sent letters informing about this. "The municipalities should clearly have reacted against this" by not constantly entering new end dates shortly in the future, points out professor of social law, John Klausen. - We have an IT system here that requires that you set an end date in, even if it is something that does not have an end date; namely, to have a very work ability. This means that the municipality can of course do the right thing, namely to set some end date very, very far into the future, for example at retirement age. Because then one would have avoided inconvenience with party consultation letters and ultimately with a reduction of the help if not responding, says John Klausen and emphasizes: - It is clearly contrary to good administrative practice to insert an end date that may hit. Thus, law professor John Klausen shares the experience that Rune Kastrup Madsens has of the many short, time-limited postponements he has been met with again and again, every time he has been sent a new letter and has contacted his caseworker once more.- I can not imagine that it is legal. For my disability does not change. There is no time limit on it. This is a situation that must be assessed on an ongoing basis by the municipality's employees and not just by a computer system deciding on it due to a date, says Rune Kastrup Madsen. Dragør Municipality has been well aware of the many phone calls from Rune Kastrup Madsen. , that the municipality has continued to send him letters informing him that his will be put down, but has still not done anything about it, he states: - The employees in the job center and the employees in the benefit team have at least been aware of it , says Rune Kastrup Madsen. It is not in accordance with the intentions of the law that you send out party hearing letters if there is nothing to hear about the party at all. Then it is not in accordance with the law. Per Damgaard Petersen, department manager at Jobcenter Randers This is admitted by the director of welfare in Dragør Municipality, Asger Villemoes Nielsen. - We can not have avoided knowing that, he says and adds that he is not ready. over why the municipality has nevertheless let it continue: - I should not be able to say it in the specific case. Because I simply do not know, he says. The only explanation that Rune Kastrup Madsen can see is the consideration for the municipality's finances. - When the municipalities automatically set up their systems to send out these letters in that way, I think , that there are some who think more about the bottom line than about helping, he says. The municipality thus saves a little over 1,000 kroner a month for every unmarried cash benefit recipient without children who are automatically put in, says law professor John Klausen. , that it will mean a lower cost for the municipalityPer Damgaard Petersen, department manager in Jobcenter Randers- With this system, where the help is automatically reduced, you have achieved that the municipality will actually save some money, every single month one does not react, he says. But the welfare director in Dragør Municipality, that it should be the reason for the municipality. - There is no financial ulterior motive in setting up the system in a certain way. Not from our side at least, says Asger Villemoes Nielsen, but at the same time adds about the automation in that system: - Typically when you set up systems, there is always a reason for how to do it. And there can easily be an idea that you have to follow up to be constantly aware that you have to work if possible. That could be a logical explanation. So you think that the automation that is in the system today may well stem from the fact that you want to keep the citizens on fire, so to speak? - It will be a pure guess on my part, for I have no idea. But that could be a plausible explanation, yes, says Asger Villemoes Nielsen. The three software companies that have developed the municipalities' IT systems confirm that the systems require a caseworker to always set an end date for a work ability in advance, and that the systems use this end date to automatically lower and send out letters with the message that the help will be reduced. The requirement to always enter an end date in advance comes from a fourth IT system, which the Danish Agency for Labor Market and Recruitment (STAR ) stands for. However, the Agency will now change this after looking more closely at the automation. - After STAR became aware that the end date of this absence registration is automatically sent to the benefit system at risk, STAR has chosen at the next system update to remove the requirement to specify an end date. , writes the Danish Agency for Labor Market and Recruitment to .But it does not in itself solve the problem to make this change in the agency's system. If you want to remove the automation and the possibility of entering such an end date in advance, the municipalities' IT systems must also be redesigned. The board therefore emphasizes that it is "a municipal task to rectify the current system solution." for example, Randers Municipality wants it, and law professor John Klausen believes that one should do. But KL states that the association is in dialogue with the agency and others about whether and how the system should possibly be redone and adds: - Until it is implemented, KL municipalities propose to set an end date far into the future, for example by transition to, so the error does not occur, KL writes to. For the time being, the system is running on, as it also did for Rune Kastrup Madsen. - It did not stop until I got out and over for rehabilitation, he explains.