Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Problems again with Computer Share Vouchers (Busy Bees)
Parents and carers are again having problems with the Computer Share Vouchers (previously Busy Bees) scheme. The scheme allows parents to sacrifice part of their salary to pay for childcare costs saving the cost of National Insurance and Income Tax deductions. Reports are surfacing of carers not being paid and parents’ salaries being deducted, but no credits to their online accounts.
The site has suffered from IT issues in it’s previous Busy Bees incarnation. In February of this year, user details were exposed following a system upgrade including email addresses of Busy Bees customers, National Insurance numbers, bank account details, payment logs and service logs. It would appear that the scheme clearly have not learned from their mistakes, as the problems have only occurred after the most recent update to their system as reported at: http://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=9535&d=23&h=0&f=0 . I’m not sure that I agree with the quotation saying that the scheme is now in the 21st Century, as ancient as the differential engine may be, at least is works.
The site has since been upgraded from an old Citrix system which was besieged by connectivity and other problems, but the latest issues being experienced are just more power to Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s attempts to remove this tax benefit. This has sparked a number of campaigns by the provider to save the scheme, but recent issues with crediting parent accounts has harmed the credibility of the scheme.
The Computer Share Vouchers system is also equally as baffling to carers as to parents. Whilst paying a childcare provider, parents are offered the chance to enter a suitable identifier – such as invoice number of equivalent. However, this information is not subsequently passed on to carers, making it impossible for them to correlate payments with invoices. As a result, parents are being fined with late payment fees and similar financial penalties, as carers seek to protect their cash flow; something which has increased significance in the current financial crisis.
The Computer Share Vouchers web site proudly boasts that the company “is at the forefront of the global investor services space.” We’re thinking of running a competition for the first person to decipher exactly what this means, but if someone out there has access to an Enigma machine, could they please run this through it and provide a suitable translation into English.
Further reading is available on a number of blogs and support sites, including:
http://www.daddacool.co.uk/2009/11/computershare-voucher-service.html
http://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/house-garden-194/money-saving-budgeting-bargains-609/344674-missing-busy-bee-computershare-childcare-vouchers.html
We’d love to hear your experiences.
Problems abound with BT Digital Vault
You must have seen those adverts on the television with the bloke from Love Actually and My Family!! It’s okay, because everything is securely held on the BT Vault, so all our treasured family photographs and important documents are safe. If only that were the case…
BT Forums have been full of users reporting issues with the system – either autobackup not working, an inability to access any of their files, an inability to delete their files or problems with upgraded software. Their are also issues with slow upload times (sometimes up to 8 hours for 1GB upload) and the problem seems far beyond becoming resolved.
Three Bears in association with Humyo can take the hassle out of the situation for you. With the free account, you get 5GB of storage for photographs and 5GB for other files. This can then be extended for more hungry users and we can offer packages for home users and business users alike.
If you’d like more information, please contact us using the form.
Three Bears IT branch out into healthcare systems
Three Bears IT have recently added healthcare and clinical trials to their portfolio of sectors. We have recently been providing a variety of consultancy services and information systems to assist in the capture, storage and management of clinical and research data.
In addition to the development of bespoke data collection systems using a variety of Microsoft Office products and Microsoft SQL Server, we have also been providing consultancy services in relation to a number of open source systems including OpenClinica and OpenCDMS.
If you have an interest in this field and would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us at enquiries@threebears.biz
Criminals target online gamers
Check out this report on the News BBC web site about how your online identity can lead to your real life details being stolen.
Users tend to use the same username and password across a variety of sites; have it stolen once and it opens up all of your details to being stolen and emails intercepted. Stay safe online.
