Why the Government frustrates me...

I'm a public servant, employed as an 'education therapist' in the Department of Education. Working for the Government has its ups and downs, but mostly it's downhill...

Ups:
--> Good medical aid
--> 4 months paid maternity leave
--> Pension fund

Downs:

• I inform them they're paying me too much, they FINALLY recitify it (after I followed it up extensively) by handing me over to the GSSC without even having the decency of telling me so.
• I pay back their money (which I never touched, since I KNEW they would come back for it, giving them the FULL amount BEFORE Tax was deducted).
• A year later they start deducting money from my salary on a monthly basis to retrieve the money which I already paid back a year earlier!
• It takes me to go in to the District Offices and put a stop to this, take all my documents to prove to them that they're illegally deducting money from my salary.
• They stop the deductions after taking a considerable amount of money from me.
• They put in a mandate to give the money back to me --> sending it through to the GSSC with a tracking number and all...
• I've followed this up for the past 7 months - wanna know where that piece of paper is that just needs a signature??? In between all the other 7 billion pieces of paper of other hopefuls on the desk of the head of the GSSC, minus a tracking number so you can't check up on their progress... (compliments of the GSSC, NOT the Dept of Education's fault, I must add)
• I'll maybe ONEDAY in the VERY FAR FUTURE (heck knows WHEN) get my money back - TAXED... NEVER the full amount - because, guess what? They can't give me the FULL amount in my hand written out on a cheque. Oh no, they HAVE to pay it into my account, sortoff as an 'extra', which will be taxed. Thus my money will be taxed twice... Nice, uhh?

So there, that's why I'm ABSOLUTELY frustrated with the GSSC at this point in time.

The reason the Department of Education frustrates me? Apparently therapists don't need money, they don't need Occupation Specific Dispensation. As long as we don't have job descriptions in this Department, they don't have to pay us for all the work we do which is not specific to therapists' realm of experience / training . As long as they don't pay us OSD, they don't have to worry about the fact that we're struggling to get our required CPD points because we simply can't afford it to pay so much for courses which they can't provide to us since the GSSC won't pay if something has not yet been delivered... Once again the GSSC seems useless. You have to PAY to get CPD accredited, thus you can't PROVIDE a service before it's not been PAID for, because you won't be able to guarantee that the service being provided for will be covered by the GSSC. CATCH 22!!!!

Therapists in Education gets paid less than Teachers in Education (employed by the Department of Education, not necessarily those employed by School Governing Bodies).

• Education thinks we are Health's responsibility, and vice versa. FACT is, Dept of Education employs us, they should pay our OSD.
• Why is my 4 your BSc degree not equal to a teacher's Diploma or Teaching Degree?? I.E, why do I get paid LESS than a teacher if we both studied for 4 years, or in my case if I even have 2 years post-graduate training????

I want to help people who can't afford private services, but with such poor delivery on the Government's side, I tend to think that I should go work privately because in the end maybe my sanity relies on my ability to help people on my terms... I worked HARD for my degree, I worked HARD for my post-graduate Diploma and Certificate. I'd like to think that I work HARD at my job and that it's noticed and rewarded.

Sometimes Quality of Life outweighs Quantity of Money and Benefits... Maybe it's time I realise that...