No Money-Can someone help please?

[Roblinsway]

Hello,

could someone please help with a problem my son is having.He was on CB ESA,6 weeks ago his payment didn't go into his bank and when he phoned about this he was told that he had been on the benefit for 12 months and had been sent a form to apply for IR ESA,

 

he never got the form but of course the DWP won't accept that,he then filled the form out and took it to the Jobcentre,he waited while they faxed it through to the relevant department,

 

he was told as he has no other income or savings that they would speed his claim up and it should be sorted within a few days,6 weeks later and he has still not had a penny,he has explained to them that his flat has gas and electric meters but as he has no money to top them up he has no means of heating,having a wash or cooking apart from all his other bills mounting up.

 

Today he was told that the reason for the delay is that the person who faxed the application form did not attach a note explaining what it was for,my son asked to see a manager who told him that was rubbish as the form itself gives all the details needed,even though he has had no money for 6 weeks they told him they cannot give him any help,

 

I am trying my best to help out but I am on benefits myself,he just doesn't know where to turn to next so any advice would be much appreciated.

Edited April 24, 2013 by citizenB
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[time4change2]

has he applied for a short term benefit advance with his local council? as this has replaced crisis loans i think this is the only thing he might be able to apply for at the minute but i might be wrong.

 

the only other i can think of is keep phoning ESA up and pressure them to seeped his claim up there is not a time limit set as far as i know for this but i would have thought it would have been done by now but its happening to a lot of people at the moment

 

a lot of the councils are giving food voucher and credit vouchers for gas and electric so he could apply for that under the short term benefit advance

 

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/information__resources/benefits/social_fund/short_term_benefit_advances.aspx

 

hope this helps and i hope he gets sorted soon

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi Roblinsway, and welcome to CAG!

 

A friend of mine had a very similar situation with her son when he turned 18, and it took weeks to sort it out and of course everyone blames everyone else, says the paperwork isn't there and so on. I'm sure it's delaying tactics.

 

The only thing that worked was phoning, and phoning and phoning. Take the name of everyone you speak to, and keep on phoning.

 

Do follow the advice above and see if your son can get the short term benefit allowance and the vouchers for the gas and electricity.

 

Good luck.

 

DD

[antone]

has he applied for a short term benefit advance with his local council? as this has replaced crisis loans i think this is the only thing he might be able to apply for at the minute but i might be wrong.

 

the only other i can think of is keep phoning ESA up and pressure them to seeped his claim up there is not a time limit set as far as i know for this but i would have thought it would have been done by now but its happening to a lot of people at the moment

 

a lot of the councils are giving food voucher and credit vouchers for gas and electric so he could apply for that under the short term benefit advance

 

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/information__resources/benefits/social_fund/short_term_benefit_advances.aspx

 

hope this helps and i hope he gets sorted soon

 

Just to be clear, Short Term Benefit Advances are still handled by the DWP. It's the Crisis Loan scheme that's been farmed out to councils.

 

STBAs replace Interim Payments and Crisis Loans for alignment to benefit. So I agree, he should contact the ESA section that is (supposed to be) paying his claim and explain that he would like to be considered for an STBA as a matter of urgency. Note that the Jobcentre office itself can't help or make decisions about this, it needs to be done in a call to the Benefit Centre. Their number should be on any letter they have sent regarding his claim. He can visit the Jobcentre and ask to use their courtesy phones to call them if he wishes - that way there will be no call charges.

[antone]

A friend of mine had a very similar situation with her son when he turned 18, and it took weeks to sort it out and of course everyone blames everyone else, says the paperwork isn't there and so on. I'm sure it's delaying tactics.

 

 

I'm drawing attention to this because people often feel this way when dealing with the DWP, and as a former employee I have to say it's perfectly understandable. But it's not true, and thinking this way can increase folks' general stress levels unnecessarily.

 

To quote Sir Humphrey, "I wouldn't call Civil Service inactivity 'tactics', Prime Minister. That would be to mistake lethargy for strategy."

 

Or, more usefully, the DWP is a huge, faceless machine, but to the average front line staffer, paying a claim is so much easier and more desirable than not paying. People calling can use this to their advantage by remembering these key points:

 

• It isn't (usually) personal, so stay calm and polite
  
• But it's no function of the DWP staffers to allow people to suffer unnecessarily
  
• So be insistent. Politely insistent, but insistent nonetheless
  

[Desperate Daniella]

I see what you are saying but my friend's case was absolutely ridiculous and I helped her all the way through, and of course I was very polite and very firm, and then very, very firm.

 

She sent documents by recorded delivery and they said they couldn't find them. When she gave the name of the person who had signed they said that person had passed them to the wrong department

 

She sent them again, in the envelope provided. They said she had sent them to the wrong address.

 

She was given a fax number to fax documents. When she chased up they said they didn't know of the fax number, and then admitted it was in another office in the same building.

 

Then she was told he didn't meet the residency requirements and the Home Office would sort it out. The Home Office said it was nothing to do with them. He is an EU citizen and therefore entitled to benefits.

 

They again said he didn't meet the residence requirements. He has lived here for 17 years and because he is disabled he has been on NHS records for 17 years. The Council has education records for almost his whole life.

 

The local MP was absolutely useless; her assistant said they had "written, and would write again". They said they didn't have any names so just sent their letters to the "Correspondence Department" and couldn't get a specific name. And our MP is a Cabinet Minister.

 

It was only when I started ringing from her house every day when she handed them over to me and gave them permission to speak to me that within a couple of weeks it finally got sorted out - after nearly six months.

 

Sorry, antone, rant over, but I just couldn't believe how long it took to sort out the claim of a genuine claimant.

[Desperate Daniella]

And she received a letter saying he had to attend the Jobcentre for an interview even though he was in a residential college for the disabled at the time. So we took him at half-term and they could see he can't even speak, and it took three months from then for it to be sorted out.

 

Second rant over.

[antone]

Well, that's certainly a shambles, no doubt about it. Just to be clear, I'm saying that it's incompetence, not malice, that drives most of these cases.

 

Not necessarily individual incompetence, although there are something like 80,000 JCP staff - they're not all geniuses. No, I mean that the DWP is institutionally incompetent. But there's nothing any of us can do about it, which is why I ask people to remember in their dealings that it is frustrating, but not personal.

[Desperate Daniella]

You are of course absolutely right. When I referred to delaying tactics, I probably should have said that it was lack of concern and an attitude of "we'll get round to it when we get round to it."

 

I insisted on numbers, took names, and kept calling for her, and made it clear I would be calling them every day, and finally they did return calls and they did sort it out.

 

But, it would have taken anyone with the smallest degree of common sense only about 15 minutes to have checked him out. NHS records and local council who were funding his residential schooling could have confirmed his disability and the fact that he'd been here almost all his life.

[time4change2]

Just to be clear, Short Term Benefit Advances are still handled by the DWP. It's the Crisis Loan scheme that's been farmed out to councils.

 

STBAs replace Interim Payments and Crisis Loans for alignment to benefit. So I agree, he should contact the ESA section that is (supposed to be) paying his claim and explain that he would like to be considered for an STBA as a matter of urgency. Note that the Jobcentre office itself can't help or make decisions about this, it needs to be done in a call to the Benefit Centre. Their number should be on any letter they have sent regarding his claim. He can visit the Jobcentre and ask to use their courtesy phones to call them if he wishes - that way there will be no call charges.

 

my mum was told the the councils are dealing with this that's why they could not help her on Thursday ill get her to ring them back tomorrow to see why they gave her the wrong info

 

thanks for pointing that out x

[bs0lth]

I am currently having a nightmare with stopped ESA. I have been passed from pillar to post, from department to department. The call center staff so far have proved to be the weak link in the chain. I know things are not personal to the members of staff dealing with things but it is very personal to you when you are trying to get information, help or point in the right direction.

 

I have had a lot of post go missing, the Royal Mail know, my postman knows, the DWP knows but it is this that has caused me massive problems.

 

I have been told on various occassions that the only help I can get is via my local authority as they now deal with people in crisis.

 

The LA said that they could not help me until I asked the DWP for either a Short Term Advance in lieu of benefit or that I had applied for a budgeting loan.

 

both were unavailable to me so had to go back to the LA.

 

I dont know where you are, but my LA the help you get is £10 electricity voucher £10 gas voucher and a food parcel that lasts 3 days. not much help but its something.

 

You really need be on the ball and keep asking, I have found that I get further when you ask to talk to a decision maker. They are the ones that will be able to help you more.

 

Over the last three days I have talked to 10 call center staff and have been told by 9 of them information that is completely wrong. it was only when I talked to a team leader then a decision maker that I started to get the correct information.

 

Depending on who your local councilor is and you MP is you might get some valuable help from them, there are threads on here where the councilor has been a huge help in sorting things out, I suppose that is all the luck of the draw.

 

In the last 5 weeks of talking to the DWP nobody mentioned the STBA I had not heard of it until the guy from the crisis team told me about it, and then I went back and asked about it. The call centers just keep repeating you have to go to your local council now, and that information is totally incorrect.

 

Good luck with what is happening...

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi bs0lth,

 

I'm sorry you are having such a bad time too. I just couldn't believe how completely useless most of them were, and the rubbish so many of them spouted.

 

You have made some very good points.

 

Like you I insisted that I spoke to a team/leader or manager because they at least would agree to call back within a certain time frame.

 

As you say, some local councillors are brilliant. I didn't follow that route as my friend had already started dealing with our local MP who, as I said above, was worse than useless.

 

What astonished me was when I was told that they don't have to work within a set time frame. Maybe antone knows if this is true? Most Government departments, or certainly a good number of them, have to reply within 15 working days, or something like that, but apparently DWP don't. If they really don't it's clear the whole organization needs shaking up from the top down.

 

I do wish you luck too.

 

DD

[bs0lth]

Hi DD

 

I have been amazed at the level of misinformation I have been given. I put in an appeal and 9 call center members of staff told me that the they had the appeal, that it had been validated and passed and the decision overturned. In fact after talking to the appeals section and the DM that had made the decision what in fact had happened was they had received my appeal by post. It had been entered onto the system, it had been validated as a valid appeal, and it was going to be passed to the appeals department who would contact me about the next stage.

 

Which is not what I had been told at all..they all interpreted what was on screen in their own way. i was told also that because I had won my appeal that I would get a payment, then told that I would not get a payment until I went to a medical, then told my old claim had been reopened and merged with my new claim, that my new claim had been closed down the list goes on and on and on.

 

It seems like the new rules etc have left everyone in the DWP struggling, I don't think its because of not caring, or that time is going by quickly I think its more to do with the fact that they have not been trained well enough on the new regs, and that they are snowed under with work both of which mean that it takes weeks to sort stuff out.

 

However that just does not help when you are the one left sitting with nothing at all to live on, no electric or heating and having to rely on the help of others to feed you and make it through the time it takes them to sort it out. Ok they will backdate payments, but that is not the point when you are struggling to live on nothing. You get the bare minimum to live on you don't have enough to be actually able to save in case something happens... if you do save then they take that into account... so your stuck in a catch 22 situation.

 

Good luck in getting things sorted as fast as possible, but you have to keep going back to them, it seems that its the only way things get done quicker than if you just sat back and did nothing. if you are in their face all of the time then they have to sort things out.

 

Not a lot of use to you at the moment, and I know my advice is only based on what I have going on but if anything helps at all I am pleased

 

Truly hope its sorted sooner rather than later..

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi bs0lth,

 

I think you are right. They have not been trained properly so all have their own interpretations - and that is just plain wrong.

 

I was helping a friend, and her case finally got sorted out in February after almost six months. She had all these outstanding bills and of course incurred loads of late payment charges as a result. They have told her she can put in a separate claim for these - Lord knows how long they'll take to sort that out. And of course, just calling them takes forever and costs a fortune because you have to hang on so long and listen to all the menu options every time you call.

 

My friend gave them permission to talk to me and I literally rang them every day for a fortnight, at which point they finally sorted it out. Anyone with any common sense could have checked the facts in less than 15 minutes, but all they seemed to want to do was churn out letters passing it on to other departments and get it off their own desk. Her son is severely disabled and they had all his medical reports, they had all the proof of his residency here for 17 years, and knew that he was an EU citizen, but she got two-thirds of a letter (with all the references about who had signed it on the missing top third!) saying that her son was here illegally and they would have to put in an appeal to the Home Office for him to stay. This was utter garbage obviously, and the person who sent the letter didn't want to be identified either.

 

Bearing in mind there are thousands of people who are out of work and looking for jobs, how come people like this are getting employment?

[bs0lth]

DD

 

I totally agree about phoning them costs a fortune. one of the things I have done is stop my landline phone, it got to the stage where I never used it and it was an expense that I could not afford especially when I used my mobile for everything. The thing that hacks me off is the fact the only numbers you can dial are 0845 numbers, on most plans with free mins (and yes my payg plan has free mins) you can not call these numbers without being charged. The HMRC has an 0300 number and the number you call when you first register for benefits is an 0800 number which all come under my plan as free calls. The calls to the 0845 number cost 12p per min.. not a lot I thought when I first started to phone them, however spend 20 mins on hold before you even start to talk to somebody and theres "2.50 gone... I know there are a lot of people that only have mobiles its either one or the other, and having to pay to sort out a mess just adds salt to your injury. I have used the job center phones for the last couple of times, and would you believe it, I was put straight through, I dont know if this is just coincidence but why couldnt that happen when I phoned the 20 or so times from home...

 

I also agree that more training would be good, but to be honest thats not going to happen, it will take people out of the call centers and leave them even shorter staffed... ahhhh

 

I know everyone says its not personal, they are working within their rules etc, but its hard to keep it not personal when you are just shunted from pillar to post and back again, and after you have been told so many different versions of whats going on. It gets very personal very fast.

 

I honestly have no idea how people do the job, maybe this is why the people they actually get to do it are the way they are, it must be hard to cut off from it all after a while, because everyone that calls has a different set of circumstances... it cant be easy...

 

never mind I will rant forever on this and it just doesn't do any good

 

I have a meeting at my JCP to see if I can get a decision overturned so wish me luck

[Desperate Daniella]

Of course I do!

[bs0lth]

I had my decision overturned...

[Desperate Daniella]

:whoo:So pleased for you. They do backtrack, but it's getting them there ....

[bs0lth]

I am just so happy nearly 6 weeks fighting this and it happened today, but only because i kept on phoning and phoning and phoning... hopefully the OP will not get too put off my the call center staff and keep going...

 

It takes so much work and stress to get there though...