HMRC are failing the most vulnerable people - and making the rest of us lose the will to live.

My brother, who has Autism, has been having issues with the job centre. They are putting pressure on him to get a job. Of course people who are able to get a job absolutely should be strongly encouraged to do so. My brother's Autism was only diagnosed a few years ago. I am by no means an Autism specialist but, in my opinion, his is very restrictive of him doing what 'neuro typical' folk could do easily by themselves with virtually no issues whatsoever. For him, he would need help right from knowing where to look, to doing a cv, sending the cv and all the rest of it. Realistically it's not going to happen. He has had a job - for 20 years or so, working under the remploy scheme for ITV but he was made redundant ten years ago and that was that. The job centre have their job to do in chasing him to see what he is doing re finding a job but them calling him is causing him huge amounts of stress, sleepless nights and panic attacks. In turn, he turns to me to fix it, he has nobody else. I suspect he also turns to anyone else he thinks may be able to help him - his friends, the local minister, the neighbours, anyone and everyone. Nobody else can help him as these days everything is so governed by the Data Protection Act that the very people it is there to help and protect are the ones who suffer the most. In short there MAY be a way out in that he MAY have paid enough National Insurance stamps to be able to retire - to him this means the job centre will be off his back. He is NOT able to claim jobseekers allowance for reasons I won't go into. He has been living on PIP as he lives with his dad. However in order to sort this out we need to find out about his contributions. The job centre are not able to do this for him or help him in any way. I rang HMRC on his behalf (I have Power of Attorney for him). I have tried to get the info online but I can't as he needs to be with me as he needs to upload a photo of him to match his passport. He doesn't have a mobile phone (he was given one but he couldn't work out how to use it). Four minutes after calling and listening to how I can get the information I need online (I can't). I press options to say no i don't want to do a survey, I am not calling about myself - I get told they can only deal with the account holder and the line goes dead. I decide I will try again online. I then arrange to go to his house to sort it, I go over - 7 miles away, we go online and it asks if he has these documents; a valid UK passport or non-UK passport with a biometric chip a UK photocard driving licence issued by the DVLA (or DVA in Northern Ireland) a UK biometric residence permit or card a payslip from the last 3 months or a P60 from your employer for the last tax year details of a tax credit claim if you made one details from a Self Assessment tax return if you made one information held on your credit record if you have one (such as loans, credit cards or mortgages) He does not have ANY of the above. the closest he has is an expired passport. We decide to try this. We have to tke a photo of his passport and upload it - he does not have a mobile phone. I use mine. I have to download an HMRC app and with the app, scan the chip on his passport. It fails. I try again. I have now been in that house for 37 minutes and am wearing a mask due to my dog allergy. I am getting highly stressed. I rang them and finally got through. They talked me through uninstalling their app and reinstalling it. I did. It failed again. We decided it was because the passport, was expired by 6 months or so. Their staff member said I would have to phone but they weere closed then so I should call back. I called the following day. During the call the machine told me my call was important but I can find the information online (I can't). It told me this about 186 times during the 43 minutes I was on hold. It also said the average hold time from the previous day had been 32 minutes. I finally had to give up as my phone battery died. I tried again today at 8am. They asked me to press a million options but I have worked out if you press anything, they assume you are able to go online and eventually make it so you press an option where they can tell you to go online then they hang up on you. So I didn;t press ANY options, I just hung on. At 08:23 I got connected to an atual living person. 8.25 is when I should leave for work. I explained why I was calling and what I needed. I was told they couldn't discuss with me... I said I didn;t need them to discuss - I just wanted to send the information to my brother (whether he had paid enough NI contributios to get the job centre off his case)- I said I didn't need ANY information from them. Could they not just send the info to him> No I said I did have power of attorney for him. They asked all his details - which I gave them and then they wanted the PoA ref - which I managed to find and gave them. She put me on hold - for 5 minutes (I was now going to be late for work). She came back and said the number I had given her was incorrect as it should start with a V - the number I hadfrom the PoA letter did NOT start eith a V. She then said I could send them in the post the original copy of the POA. Ha bloody Ha yes, it cost £80 and if they think i'm going to trust them with the original they must think I'm insane. She said I could send a verified copy. I asked who should I get to verify - her answer a justice of the peace or my GP. I pointed out this was likely to take weeks and cost me at least £80. She agreed, but without it she was not able to help me. Sah suggested I call the pensions line to see if they could give a contributions statement. I dropped the call - I was now 15m late for work. I recieved another e-mail from my brother - is it sorted yet? I rang the pensions helpline at lunchtime. I have 30 minutes. I didn't get through. I have no idea what to do next Perhaps I should send them a link to this blog.