Why do the british civil service insist on e-mailing their forms in pdf, knowing they are impossible to open,?

Question

The law society send out their complaints forms etc. in pdf.

We have the greatest difficulty opening them, and they are mpossible to work with.

I have pointed out that some of us disabled do not have it possible to "handwright".

Now I have the delay of letter post, then I have to scan the hard copy, before I am able to fill in the extremely urgent form on the machine and e-mail it back to them.

Why could they not send it in Word / WinZip?

Is this delay malicious?

hi cheyenet,

many thanks for suggestion.

in their infinite wisdom they find any other form of file impossible.

Last week they promised to send hardcopy by snailmail, I have not seen it yet.

I have now printed off & scanned back in Word that I can fill in, reprint, & return by recorded delivery.

This will prevent it "going AWOL in the snailmail".

I send all my post in the same manner, for the same reason.

Any other means only puts vital documenti or other correspondence in the nearest shredder.

They are far too foul to open & read post!

I ask can they read, or do they have to call a consultant?

Is that what we pay our tax for?

Answer 1

British central and government departments are neither civil nor a service. Why should they care if you can't read their forms? They've sent them, after that it's your problem. I think you'll find that downloading an Acrobat reader is free. Just don't tell those government employees that I told you.

Answer 2

They send out documents in pdf for a number of reasons, a few of which are that they are a universally accepted format (able to be read by most computers, and those which do not have the reader installed can easily download the reader for free), they are easily protected from modifications and that the latest pdf reader software has a "read out loud" function that reads out the document to the user so that's helpful for the visually impaired.

I know it's not helpful if the document concerned is a form that you have to fill in by hand. In that case, perhaps the best thing to do is to call them up and explain the issue and ask them to send the forms in an editable word format. They are required by law to oblige by way of the Disability Discrimination Act 1997.

Answer 3

It's not malicious, its just that most UK Civil Service departments are compelled to work to the Government's published targets for "e-government", as laid down by the Cabinet Office. The target is something like 25% of all Governmental business to be conducted over the internet by I believe 2008. Therefore, all Government Departments are attempting to meet target sin this area. They probably use pdf as a standard file type because someone in the Cabinet Office's e-government unit took the decision that that was the best/most preferable/most easily despatched file type. You should expect that Governmental decisions will be based not on common sense or user-friendliness, but on whether they meet certain pre-existing criteria, eg whether or not it was from the lowest acceptable bidder, whether it was in line with published 'best practices' etc etc.

I recently applied for a job in a Government Department. They told me to download the forms from the relevant web-page. I did so, and they came out as gibberish. I rang and told them, and they said they were aware there were problems. They then sent me out hard copy forms which I filled in and sent back (ultimately, I didn't get the job). E-Government is rubbish, basically.

Answer 4

PDF's are a fantastic medium for distributing and filling out forms - you just need the right software to modiufy them - its called Acrobat ( a totally different product and one that cost money)

PDF's are a relatively secure method of sending information such as forms as its difficult, but not impossible for the recipient to get it wrong. of delete sections or worse add sections. however when all is sadi and doen a PDF is just a file containing data it can be edited if you know how.

PDF's are also cross platform compoliant and usually platform independant (ie they dont expect someone to have version XXX of a specific piece of software (new versions of Acrobat Reader are always available). Otherwise they would have to maintain multiple versions of their forms suitable for each and every type of word processor, or wahtever - the complexity of managing that woudl be a nightmare.

there is nothing stopping you downloading the PDF form, completing it and scanning to send back - might add a few minutes. if you need the abiltiy to enter informationon line then pester the governemtn department to do so. the problem is that it is very hard to make online forms / applications as secure as they should be as the revenue found out its cost with the multi million tax credits fiasco.

Answer 5

I'm not sure what your problem is.

I have just been to the Law Society site, and opened a PDF without any problems.

Maybe you should get Adobe PDF reader on your computer. The is a link to it on the Law Society web site, enter Adobe PDF reader into your favourite search engine.

Answer 6

.PDF are a fine format, and no doubt they offer a link to download the free reader. And normally you don't have to handwrite on a hard copy, you can fill in the fields on the screen before you print it out. At least they make things available online, so you don't have to wait for snail mail just to get the form. Quit your moaning, cry baby. There's no pleasing some people.

Answer 7

I don't think they are deliberately trying to be malicious. It sounds more like a bureaucratic. Let them know that not everyone has a capability to download a PDF file. Ask them to send a form in a word document. They should have that capability..

Answer 8

Because PDF is a "universal" type of file that can be opened on a PC, MAC or Unix / Linux system.
MS Word is a closed format owned by MS.

You can edit PDF files with CutePDF, available from
http://www.cutepdf.com/

Answer 9

Hey there,
you can find a free download of PDF Reader here http://bitly.com/1rmrpvr
Check it out.

Answer 10

Go to Adobe's website and load up their reader there - it will open them. The thing is that .pdf files cannot be tampered with. Only 'read' and printed.