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UK Benefits Claimants Must Use Windows XP, IE6
First time accepted submitter carlypage3 writes "Benefits claimants in the UK are being forced to use Microsoft's now obsolete Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6 software. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) states that its online forms are not compatible with Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9 and 10, Safari, Google Chrome or Firefox. As if that wasn't unnerving enough, the Gov.UK website says that users cannot submit claims using Mac OS X or Linux operating systems, either."
(Note: as we noted not long ago, it's not just the DWP that's stuck using IE6.)
This is just something they have put online, the old method of claiming by post or going to the office like always is still there.
Yes, it's crap that applying for these benefits requires ancient browser tech, but note that this is for three specific benefits which will affect hardly anyone. The most common of these benefits, Disability Living Allowance, is closed to new applicants because it has been replaced by Personal Independence Payments. And Attendance Allowance was long ago replaced by DLA, now replaced by PIP except for those over 65.
A latent existence
From the article, these are the following supported browsers:
Microsoft Windows XP: Internet Explorer 6.0, Netscape 7.2, Firefox 1.0.3, Mozilla 1.7.7."
Firefox is still available (Windows link) and is fairly independent from the underlying OS, so it would probably work on Vista+/Mac/Linux too (If you can find Mac/Linux links).
Still a pain to have to pick and choose browsers. It is easier for the average person to use the offline version.
Even easier for the hacker to compromise such an outdated website and input their benefits claim directly into the database tables
(and already approved for their 10 fake identities of course).
I went to the website using the Safari browser on MacOS X, and without any problems opened the PDF form (which supposedly cannot be opened), started filling it in, and printed it (to a PDF file to avoid wasting paper, but that's the same thing). So this works absolutely fine if you have a modern Mac running MacOS X 10.8 (I didn't try older versions), and you either have a printer, or you have the e-mail address of a friend who has a printer (on a Mac, the "Print" function lets you print to your own printer, to a PDF file, to a PDF file stored in "Web receipts" which is quite handy, or to a PDF file that is mailed somewhere). You put the paper into an envelope and mail it in. That's it. So if you want to get these benefits, there is absolutely no need to use Windows, Windows XP, or Internet Explorer 6.
No, this happened because the Brit bureaucrats are doing everything Bill Gates paid them for.
It's because they all use 32-bit ActiveX controls and even if you're running a 32-bit version of Windows 7 (hardly anybody is) the permission system doesn't let you install them without a huge amount of esoteric messing around.
Remember back in the 1990's when we told Microsoft that ActiveX was a bad idea...? Yeah, about that.
PS: We have the exact same problem here in Spain. All the accountants, etc., pretty much have to use Windows XP if they want to get any work done.
No sig today...
If you can afford a Mac, or a computer newer than XP, you don't need to be sucking off the public teat.
That, my friend, is total nonsense. This site is for people getting benefits for disabilities etc. For example, I have a well-paying job. With some bad luck, I might get some illness that makes it impossible for me to drive a car. If I can't drive to work, I can't drive to work and lose my job. The UK benefits system would (possibly) pay to have me driven to work. Which is a lot, lot cheaper because of the taxes that I would continue paying than paying me unemployment benefits. In other words, people with disabilities might be in good jobs and have plenty of money while still receiving benefits.
If it was 1990 it would be totally reasonable to ask for documents to be submitted in WordPerfect format
Eh? No, it wouldn't.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
All the grandmas I know have switched to tablets
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Bollox, in the UK it perfectly legal to film anything or anyone in a public place.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
er... I'm a granny with 8 grandkids and I built my first PC over 20 years ago, the year before my first grandchild was born. Ran computer repair and small business/home networking shops in two states and two continents. Mac user now, although obliged to use a company-provided HP from time to time as well. Three Parallels VMs on the Mac for testing the websites I build. Also have a small smartphone; no tablet yet. Still haven't made up my mind which one to get.
The whole site is built on Siebel E-Systems, an old CRM system, which generates the pages. Seibel is more or less defunct, having been acquired by Oracle.
The code is spectacularly version-specific. The error messages in Javascript code on the site indicate how tightly coupled this code is to very specific quirks of older software:
Actually, in 1990 it would be reasonable. There weren't any acceptable open standards. (On Linux I ended up doing my word processing in HTML with a text editor. Truely lousy.) These days there are several reasonable choices, but rtf is probably the most widely available. Most end users don't like to use markup languages, and few documents are worth the effort of Tex.
I suppose you could say that in 1990 it would be better to just ask for text documents...but that wasn't very good either, if you needed special characters. And formatting text documents can be a real drag.
(FWIW, I'm still not satisfied with OpenOffice indexing. I haven't checked the LibreOffice indexing recently, but from a glance it looked about the same. From my point of view the best word processor, except for a few major flaws, was MSWord 5.1a for the Macintosh. Everything since then has been inferior. This is largely because I really liked the markup I could use for indexing in that system, and it fixed a huge number of problems from earlier versions. Probably, of course, I've forgotten numerous bad features, but I really like being able to turn-on visible markup chars and add them in or edit them by hand, and then turn them off to see how it will appear.)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.