Hi,

I am looking for advice I have just been for my Atos medical and received a call on Friday to advise I have been awarded ESA for the next 18 months and I would receive a letter confirming this.

Instead I got a letter from a Multi-Benefit Review Officer from the Performance Measurement Dept looking to come to my home to visit me to make sure that I am getting the correct levels of ESA & Housing Benefit and have asked that I provide 2 Forms of I.D.

I have never heard of this before and the person from DWP is coming from quite far away to do this visit. Has anyone else heard of this before?

What should I expect? I suffer from agoraphobia and I am very anxious anyway and this has sent my mind into overdrive.Any advice would be appreciated.

Hello and welcome to CAG.

I haven't heard of the performance measurement department before, but then I'm not a benefits expert. I do know about compliance visits though, and checking that people are getting the right benefits, including when they aren't claiming enough.

Have a look around the forum, there are lots of threads on compliance visits and lots of people come back to say it was nothing to worry about, after all.

I hope more of the guys will be along with comments later.

My best, HB

Hi, as honeybee said, it sounds like a type of compliance visit - basically, your national insurance number gets picked at random, and they come out and check that your claim was processed properly and that there were no errors. From the name of the department, I would guess it's more about monitoring standards of their processors than anything else.

So please don't worry too much about this.

Hi,

I am looking for advice I have just been for my Atos medical and received a call on Friday to advise I have been awarded ESA for the next 18 months and I would receive a letter confirming this.

Instead I got a letter from a Multi-Benefit Review Officer from the Performance Measurement Dept looking to come to my home to visit me to make sure that I am getting the correct levels of ESA & Housing Benefit and have asked that I provide 2 Forms of I.D.

 

I have never heard of this before and the person from DWP is coming from quite far away to do this visit. Has anyone else heard of this before?

 

What should I expect? I suffer from agoraphobia and I am very anxious anyway and this has sent my mind into overdrive.Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi, when I was placed in the support group I had a visit like this. The DWP had picked up that all my money goes into my wife's bank account. They stated that they due to my mental health problems that they were just checking the situation and I was happy to carry on with the arrangement. He also gave my wife advice on the documents she would need if I went into hospital again for a long period of time. He was very informative. Not all these visits are a bad experience.

Hello Again

I want to say thank you for to each of you that took the time to reply to me. There's could be a few reasons as to why I've received this letter.

I am still worrying about this, I feel ive been mislead, as it was a ESA review & Atos medical that I had and was advised that my benefit would continue as it has for the last year and I'd get confirmation through the post, yet all I get is this letter advising me of a home visit in 2days time.(Very short notice) The letter is signed by the person I spoke with. I am confused as to why I wasn't advised of the visit when I was on the telephone? Am I looking to much into this?? It all seems abit odd to me??

Hello again.

I'm sorry this is stressing you. All I can say is that from what we've seen here, it's a routine visit. Mr Mastiff has personal experience of this and estellyn really knows her stuff and is also a benefit claimant.

Please try to calm down, because if you don't believe us, it's hard to know what to say.

Hugs, HB

Benefit claims are checked at random, and that has nothing to do with the outcome of your Atos assessment.

There is a DWP section that checks up on the performance of DWP staff - it can be referred to as "Accuracy", "Quality Control", or "Performance Measurement". As others have said, they're looking up their own staff, not you.

So stay calm. It's not likely that there's a problem with your claim.

Hi HB

Thankyou again for your supportive words, You all have so much more experience on this than myself so i do need to calm myself down.

Im sorry if it came across that i didn't believe you, that's not the case at all. Thanks again - Hugs x

You need some sleep, stop beating yourself up please.

HB

Hello Again

I want to say thank you for to each of you that took the time to reply to me. There's could be a few reasons as to why I've received this letter.

I am still worrying about this, I feel ive been mislead, as it was a ESA review & Atos medical that I had and was advised that my benefit would continue as it has for the last year and I'd get confirmation through the post, yet all I get is this letter advising me of a home visit in 2days time.(Very short notice) The letter is signed by the person I spoke with. I am confused as to why I wasn't advised of the visit when I was on the telephone? Am I looking to much into this?? It all seems abit odd to me??

I'll be relieved when it's all over as the ESA50 form & medical assessment were so stressful, now this?

Hi missinneed, When dealing with ATOS/DWP I think we all become paranoid, I had recording device made sure my wife was there and in the end it was nothing to worry about, so please listen to the people with far more experience than I. They normally are spot on. Please let us know the out come of this visit.

Hi,

I thought I'd pop back to let you know the outcome of my visit. The man from DWP was lovely explaining that my NI my number had been pulled at random. DWP are cross checking lots of claims in my area. I went through my claims for ESA & HB and checked my bank statements (Although he did question a TSB account i held as a child?? Lol)

I have to say that the gent was very helpful & informative and is calling me tomorrow after doubly checking there CT benefit system as im entitled to Council Tax Benefit that I'm not getting. So there visit has been a Good thing

I had no need to fret but id be very worried if I'd did/done something wrong as their checks are so extensive!!! Thanks again to all who advised to my original post.

Good news, and thanks for coming back to let us know - that will help future posters with the same concerns.