Just the normal illogical and thoughtless way of doing things in the Civil Service I suppose.
When they're sat behind a desk making life-changing for people,why should they worry ? You're merely another name in a folder and it's nearly tea-break.
I used to work for the (govt) Dept of Employment, where people came to claim benefits because they had no job.
You start off with good intentions, but inevitably it becomes an 'us and them' situation in the office.
One of my duties was to decide whether to allow their claim or not, and I was quite dispassionate about denying people money for whatever reason....knowing that this was going to cause problems for them.