We spent 10 months trying to deal with Social Security over sickness benefit for herself when she was unemployed. It was clear that we were dealing with SSbots. None of her letters were ever answered - in terms of dealing with the points raised by her, and that included direct questions.
That Kafka bloke knew nowt'.
We were reduced to writing to the Minister for the dept. in the form of a table with her questions, their answers (so-called) and the mistakes/failures to answer/understand.
They admitted some errors after 6 months and paid some of the due backdated payment, but not all. It then took another 3 months, after breaking down every, and I mean every, sentence in their case, demonstrating that they simply did not understand their own reasons, let alone hers, before getting it all paid.
My own hypothesis is that, now 50% of the population go to uni, the people who once would have been very competent clerks/administrators, with good levels of literacy and reasoning powers, have been replaced by people, who once would have worked at a level lower than that, are now required to do jobs above their level of competence. They are, sadly, incapable of recognising that and stick to their guns, regardless.
Rant over.