No County for an Old Man?

I suppose, as I have said before, I am of an age where being grumpy is a natural phenomenon – they make TV programmes on this basis. Some say that I have been like this for a number of years, and it has nothing to do with the ageing process.
Be that as it may. There is a, perhaps inevitable, aggravation of this condition when dealing, at arms length, with a somewhat faceless, State bureaucracy. In this case one becoming increasingly inflexible, ill-tempered and incompetent, in equal measure.
Today there are irritants beyond count; capricious Relationship Managers, more Financial Stewardship inconsistency, Autorecbot intransigence and the joy of sending files by courier to London.
However top of the list, in a week in which we have been plagued by issues regarding Proof of Means on Legal Help files, comes a rash of phone calls. Clients, understandably terrified by recent experience, now often call for advice at the point of assessment, to ensure that there can be no possible future comeback. The process of assessing means on a “green form” can now exhaust a significant portion of the resultant standard fee. And then your RM might invent some irrational interpretation of guidance and “nil assess” the file in any event – (sorry not “assess” there are just findings with no appeal rights).
Actually grumpy is not the word for how I feel this morning.