Misinformation leading to lost money.

[Jamhead]

I'm not sure if I should post this in a new topic but I can't seem to find anything related on it yet, regarding being told nonsense by DWP staff that leads to problems.

 

I was told one thing over the phone; That I couldnt apply for IS until my appeal had been marked as received on their system, but that my money WOULD be backdated as long as I was within a time limit of one month. It took three weeks for my appeal to be put together and for them to mark it as received (even though my recorded delivery stated they received it a week before they said). Now I have been told I am not entitled to receive the backdated three weeks worth of money.

 

I am appealing now against THIS decision. I am furious because I specifically asked if I had to claim straight away, but was told I had to wait until my appeal had been received!

 

What power do people have against being completely misinformed by someone who doesn't know what they're talking about?

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Hi Jamhead

 

Did you have a claim for Income Support and Incapacity

Benefit prior to failing your PCA

 

If you did and completed your appeal form and they accepted it with in one calendar month then you should have a continuous claim and go on to the appeal rate of IS , thats £48.40 at the moment for a single person.

If they shut your claim you are entitled to have it reopened speak to a supervisor when you call again

 

If you have only just made a claim to I.S and they have hadnt then accepted your PCA appeal and your claim was processed as nil entiitlement

then you can get that looked at agiain and get paid from your date of claim

[Jamhead]

Hi thanks for replying,

 

I was claiming Incap but it was stopped yeah, I rang up the day I was told it was stopped (15th dec) and the bloke said I couldn't claim IS until I'd handed in an appeal, but when I did claim the IS it would be backdated to the day after my Incap was stopped. I definitely got my appeal in within one month of my Incap being stopped (8th of Jan - which is the date I made my claim for IS) so I don't understand why they're now saying I don't fit the criteria for being allowed those three weeks backdated.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

you were wrongly advised, did you call the call centre to claim I.S or did I,B tell you that.

 

have you made your claim to Income Support now? if you have ask for backdating to December 15th the day you failed your PCA

and explain what happened

be firm with them you can ill afford to lose that money you are entitled to it

see Welfare Rights if you seem to be getting no where, or threaten them with your MP that always works

good luck

[Jamhead]

It was the guy from IB that told me that, obviously it seems to be wrong, which why I'm so furious because I specifically asked if I had to claim today or not, and he said that i didn't. I have to appeal against this decison for definite, I can't afford to lose any money, I've been reduced from £104 to £48 a week anyways.

 

And I'll be on this £48 for up to 6 months it seems while they deliberate over my appeal, probably to be told that it has failed and I should have been claiming JSA, which means these 6 months of reduced rate will be another way for them to save money and wreck my life. Woo!

 

I am going to the CAB and also writing a letter of complaint to my MP, I know of people who have done this and it hasn't gotten them anywhere but I'm still going to. I am pretty disgusted at the way the system works to be honest it seems designed to save money and intimidate people so much that they can't be bothered to deal with it.

[insyder]

This is what is called misdirection.

 

It is another matter entirely trying to prove it though. In order for a misdirection to have weight the onus is on the customer to prove it and this would mean that someone in the chain would have to either admit that they provided wrong information or for there to have been a record of it.

 

In your case you also have another point which is that you can prove that the claim was received earlier than they have marked it as you sent it recorded delivery. This, I assume, you covered in your appeal. What will be more difficult as far as the decision maker looking at the appeal is concerned is trying to trace the evidence that you had been misinformed. It isn't that you're lying, it is more to do with being unable to prove that you aren't.

 

As a side note: Experienced benefit-trained staff have had it drummed into them that they should never tell someone NOT to claim a benefit - so if you are told my someone that you should not claim then it is likely that that person is not an experienced, trained staff member. It's a good rule of thumb when getting the type of answer that you got.

[Jamhead]

Thanks for the advice, Insyder.

 

It was the appeal that was sent via recorded delivery and not the claim for IS. I beleive the claim for IS was taken from the day I telephoned to make it. I would have done this the day I found out my IB had been stopped if they hadn't told me I had to wait until the appeal had been received.

 

I understand that if I can't prove I was misinformed then perhaps I don't have a leg to stand on. Are people supposed to record all telephone calls now then? I feel it's unfair that I should be penalised by the DWP beacuse of a simple mistake made by someone working for the DWP.

 

I used to work for my local Job Centre Plus and I recall making advice errors myself when I first started, I always went out the way to put them right.