A Letter from Social Welfare in Ireland - Debt? What Debt?

Yes, I am on the dole, I'm not happy about it but, hey, shit happens. I'm not going to explain my case because it has no bearing on the issue at hand today.

Today I got a letter in the door from the so called Department of Social Protection's Social Welfare Services. The letter claims that I owe them a sum total of nearly €4,000. Why? I have literally zero idea, the letter doesn't tell me any information about where this debt has come from. This is the very first line of the letter verbatim

"I am writing to you about your debt of €3935.40 which you owe the Department of Social Protection."

I'm sorry? What debt? Surely I should be made aware the reasons I have a debt before I'm told I have to pay it, no? And where did that 40 cents come from? That's just silly.

I mean, if I knew where this debt was coming from I might decide that the DSP is right and I'll gladly go about paying the debt. But the fact that they give me no information about the debt, other than the fact I owe a debt and the value of that debt, means that I now have to waste both my own time (time I could be using to find a job by the way) and the time of the DSP trying to get information about this debt and then fighting it.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me either. Earlier in the year I received an almost identical letter claiming I owe roughly the same amount too. After spending much time trying to find the origin of that debt I was told that the Social Welfare office I was using when I lived in Dublin claimed I was receiving payment while in college. I haven't been to college since 2012. I then spent weeks trying to fight that debt, luckily I succeeded in that case. I proved the infallible DSP wrong (maybe this new debt is some sort of twisted act of revenge).

And here is where I had a good laugh. I'm just going to quote the full section.

You are entitled to comment on the method of payment or to advise the Department of any facts or circumstances which you consider relevant to the repayment of your debt using the attached form A. Any comments you make will be given full consideration. Please reply within 21 days.
Deductions will begin on or after 23/08/2017.

Ok, so you're telling me I get to comment on the circumstances of this debt by sending away Form A? Using the post office? In 2017? I also have 21 days to reply, right? But I'm only given 7 days before deductions begin? Huh. That's funny. So I get to have a portion of my money deducted from me for a completely unexplained debt for two weeks before I need to send in Form A? And when exactly did Franz Kafka become head of the DSP?

Well I won't be sending away Form A at all, because the wording of it seems to imply guilt. Nowhere on Form A can I find a section for trying to contest the debt.

I'm just going to ring the department constantly until I get to the bottom of this.

Anyway, sorry about posting this but I just needed to vent some of my frustrations regarding this. I seriously need to get my act in gear and follow through with my plans to leave this silly little island pretty damn soon.

Oh, and if anyone has any jobs going hit me up so I can get out from under the thumb of the Irish welfare system.

Here's some art to lighten the mood.