Beurocracy, rudeness
For most of last year (2007), I was fortunate enough to receive student finance from the Dutch government, despite my non-Dutch nationality. This was because of a little-known law which states that if you are a EU citizen who works for a Dutch company for at least 32 hours per month, you may receive the same student finance as Dutch nationals. Since I worked the during last year at the Sláinte bar,
I was eligible for such funding.
The problem is that now the year is finished, they need supporting evidence for my having worked sufficient hours during each and every month (previously they only checked every three). This was to take the form of a copy of my wage slip from each month.
This would not be so much of a problem in itself, except that I was missing a few of these, and the Sláinte of course closed in December due to a screw-up with the licence. I have already been back and forwards a few times in search of the correct documents from my former employers, a task which has been made more complicated by the fact that the place changed hands at the beginning of November.
Today was my third such visit; this time all that I needed was the salary sheet I never received for last April (yes, almost a year ago). The guy who I spoke to got really annoyed this time, since he really didn’t see how it was his problem that I had never received the correct documents from the former owner. I would have made the point that when you take over a business you also take over responsibility for consequences of what any previous owners may or may not have done, but it didn’t really seem like the best time to do so.
Finally I got him to make a phone call and get the document faxed over to the Sláinte, having explained to him how much money it would cost me if I could not get the correct document. This should have been the end of the story, except that the idiots on the other end faxed through February by mistake, which meant I had to once again plead with him for assistance. Still cursing that it was not his damn problem, he told me that I would have to ring them myself. This I did, the document got faxed over, end of fucking story. At least I hope so.
Courtesy costs nothing, so they say, but it seems some people have other ideas.
