My overall Benefits journey from 2013 to date - and on going still!!

[Guest]

I am so glad my son was visiting again this morning on his way to work, he sat with my while I rang the council to get the name of the compliance people etc, I was put through and shakily managed to explain whats happened, they gave me the email address and asked for it in writing and they would investigate this, my son has been able to scan and attach the letters/envelopes with all the wrong addresses on etc and we did the email and its gone. I will update here for the sake of result etc.

[Shoelover]

Why did she need to open it? I would have thought the addressee was on the front with the address!

[Lilly_Monroe]

Do not recall ever having a 'hand written' addressed letter from them.

I thought the computer automatically printed it off.

[Shoelover]

Possibly a copy they printed then popped In an envelope. If someone asks for copies of letters my council sent, that's what we do.

[Guest]

well the benefits office said the dept that sends out letters hadn't updated on the system, sounds weird? anyhow apparently the envelope was handwritten as on the print out letter it still had the old address which was the first error........with the second error I have no idea what happened but on the actual letter only the second half of the address was printed out.........ie.........7 consumer road........and not 87 consumer road......and the area as in don and not London.............the stupid thing is that below the dear ms consumer was actually the full address typed so it wouldn't have taken a genius to work it out?....they then handwrote the envelope with 7 consumer road, but worked out it was London and not don......the lady at number 7 rang them and they said open it as the correct address must be on there "somewhere", so she did that and walked round with it to me.

[rebel11]

The Data Protection Act (1998) is breached if was was an accidental loss of data.

 

http://ico.org.uk/for_the_public/raising_concerns

[Guest]

Its happened to me twice within the last 4 weeks, and to someone else living near to me also recently, I doubt its isolated to just us either. However I shall see what reply I get from them, am probably wasting my time as there is nothing I can do now, am just so upset about my personal info being seen by another resident by being told to open the letter etc. Hopefully the records will be properly updated but its still not the point. I doubt they care really and lets face it theres nothing can be done now, whats done is done.

[Guest]

so two weeks on from reporting it and no reply. I emailed this morning to ask if the promised investigation was still ongoing, and got a reply within 10 minutes asking for details of it as they have no record of the email. I was asked which email address it was sent to and a copy of it. I sent it all again and within the hour have been informed that it has now been sent to the benefits manager to look into.

[Consumer dude]

so two weeks on from reporting it and no reply. I emailed this morning to ask if the promised investigation was still ongoing, and got a reply within 10 minutes asking for details of it as they have no record of the email. I was asked which email address it was sent to and a copy of it. I sent it all again and within the hour have been informed that it has now been sent to the benefits manager to look into.

 

You couldn't make it up could yer..

[Guest]

very true Consumer dude......

[Guest]

And so today I receive a letter ....apologies for the catalogue of errors and saying it wont happen again. They fully admit telling someone else to open my letter and to getting the address wrong twice to two different wrong addresses, to "losing" the email of complaint to the data protection officer, and not replying to my first complaint at the start. I am baffled that after all this they can now say sorry and that's it. Had I not pursued it they would have left it .....twice ignoring my complaint until it went to someone who finally dealt with it. Saying sorry hasn't actually made me feel better about a neighbour now knowing my personal business.

[Guest]

I have now decided to take it to a stage two complaint, having read through the letter there are a couple of things not acknowledged or answered properly so I will take it up a notch. At least I feel like I am doing something.

[Guest]

I applied and was refused Dla last year before the swap over to pip in my area. Is there a restriction to apply for Pip now, one of my conditions is worse now.

[Nystagmite]

No there isn't. The criteria for both benefits is completely different.

[antone]

No, you can apply for PIP any time you like. A previous refusal to award DLA won't count against you.

[Guest]

Thanks guys.....with all the changes I wasn't sure, and I have problems sometimes understanding all the written stuff.

[Guest]

Hi everyone..............

 

I was transferred from IB to ESA support group in January 2014. I dont recall EVER receiving any tax forms etc. whilst claiming. This morning i received a P60U from dwp Belfast. Its got a tax code of 1000L. All the columns for "pay" "deductions" etc are nil. I looked on the back of it and the first line says JSA is subject to tax....am not on jsa and have never been on it.

 

Is this something to worry about?...i dread having to deal with these people, there is no contact number and the only address is po box belfast on the back of envelope. Is this something they are sending out now? I never had any on IB nor last year when on ESA support group..........baffled.

[Mr.P]

It will be an end of (financial) year tax statement showing how much tax was paid on your benefits (which should be zero). Nothing to worry about.

 

For slightly more information, see: https://www.gov.uk/paye-forms-p45-p60-p11d/p60

[Guest]

Thankyou Mr.P

[essexmat]

Also got mne this morning with a 1000L code. Filed under 'DWP nonsense'

[antone]

The DWP has to send these forms to claimants annually, since in some cases the benefits you receive may affect the amount of tax you need to pay. It's only likely to affect you if you also worked at some point during the tax year in which you received benefits. The DWP does not deduct tax from any benefits, even if the benefit is taxable. If benefits were your only source of income for an entire tax year (or most of one) then it probably won't be any sort of issue as you won't receive enough to be liable for any tax.

 

The main benefits that are taxable are JSA (both types, C and IB), ESA (C only) and IB from the 29th week of your claim. ESA(IR) and IS are not taxable, and neither are DLA, PIP, AA or Housing Benefit.

[Guest]

Thankyou antone..............I really dont understand all the IR and CB stuff. And some claimaints have mix of both i read. I just hope theyre paying me the right one and there isnt going to be a nasty surprise letter at some point saying ive been overpaid. Hopefully not. I went from IB to ESA Support group on the esa50 with evidence and info alone, and recieve what they have called disability income guarantee, i read this only applies to either the IR or the CB, and what i read doesnt make sense to me for which one i should be. But then confusion is part of me in the natural sense and my conditions/illness.

 

Thankyou for replies here i am filing it now with other dwp stuff.

[Guest]

Hi. A new sick note was due from 16th November, GP surgery said they couldn't/wouldn't issue one any earlier and to email them

 

requesting a new one. The email was sent on 14th to request note from the 16th. Yesterday we were told 'it was still with the

 

doctor for action' today we are now told the GP wants a telephone appointment before he can issue the sick note. The earliest

 

one available is Tuesday 22nd so now way are the dwp esa going to get the sick note in time. The next esa payment would be

 

due on 24th. Do we ring to ask them to keep claim open?...will they?.....any advice here welcome.

[unclebulgaria67]

I can't see that they would stop the ESA claim, but they will only pay such a benefit based on sick notes received. Means a delay in getting your next payment.

 

DWP would presumably understand that people have problems speaking to their Doctors and allow a few weeks before a claim is cancelled.

 

Your problem might be whether your Doctor is willing to issue a backdated sick note for your condition. No point phoning DWP, as they will say that they only pay ESA covered by sick notes and can't know what your Doctor will decide.

 

If you get the sick note, you could see whether DWP are willing to have it faxed to them by your nearest Job Centre and then posted for their records. Presumably, if you just posted, it might be a few weeks before it is processed.

[Guest]

its just I think I heard that if they don't receive a sick note within a week of the due date they will close the claim....which is why I thought we should ring them