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Claim: A teenager whose mother had died received a government check mailed to
Origins: The advent of technology that allows for the And automated or otherwise, the practice of periodically sending mail (such as Christmas cards) to persons with whom the correspondent is not in regular contact carries the potential for creating incidents both embarrassing and hurtful, as
I used to send about 300 [Christmas] cards but now, with the ease of computer records and labels, some MPs can send in excess of 1,000. My agent would be smoothing ruffled feathers until March among those who had been overlooked. The general rule was that once admitted to the list, a card was always sent in subsequent years. But even this could cause embarrassment. Cards ended up being sent to "Mr and Mrs" when Mrs had passed away earlier in the year.
All of these elements sadly came into play in January 2005, when a 15-year-old Sydney, Australia, boy whose mother had died suddenly fifteen months earlier received a back-to-school check from the state government addressed to
The boy's father said his son, 15, initially thought the letter was a "sick joke", until he realised it was an official letter from Premier Bob Carr.
The family received apologies from Director General of Education "This is nothing short of disgraceful," the boy's father said. "All the work that's gone into helping my son since his mother died has gone down the drain." The boy's mother died 15 months ago, and her family is still trying to come to terms with her sudden death. The letter and the attached $50 cheque are both addressed to "We thought it was some type of sick joke until we opened the envelope to find Bob Carr's smiling melon on the letter," the father, who did not want to be named, said. "He can keep his lousy $50. We don't want his cheque". The father said he was dumbfounded at how such a callous bureaucratic bungle could slip through the system. "We do something wrong by the Government and they're into us. As soon as they make a mistake you get a flippant apology," he said. Follow-up news accounts indicated that New South Wales premier Bob Carr initially said he would not be issuing a personal apology because he did not address the letter, but in the end
Mr. Carr said the incident was unfortunate, but the large number of cheques sent out by the government meant mistakes were possible. "But of course, we apologize, and we apologize unreservedly."
Last updated: 10 May 2007
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