Pension and benefit payments face disruption after what is being described as the biggest computer crash in government history left as many as 80,000 civil servants staring at blank screens and reverting to writing out giro cheques by hand in the latest blow to a hi-tech Whitehall revolution.A week-long crisis in the giant Department for Work and Pensions created a backlog of unprocessed claims with up to 80% of the ministry’s 100,000 desk machines disrupted or knocked out by a blunder during maintenance….
“At this point there is no known solution or ETA,” said the memo. “We are hopeful that some interim measures that are being considered may release some users from their current deadlock.” A routine software upgrade on a small number of PCs last weekend is believed to have gone disastrously wrong when an incompatible system was downloaded on to the whole network.
On the other hand, maybe the Microsoft empire is secretly flying the black flag with the golden apple. Fnord! The best part is that the “small number of PCs” is reported to be SEVEN.