"de-combining " benefits

mardatha

:mad: Has anybody else had a recent shock with their IB ? I have combined IB and DLA and when I checked the bank this week the DLA was not there. They said they are in the process of de-combining and that my DLA is effectively stopped until the IB people sort it out. I am now £70 a fortnight short with no notice at all and no letter to explain why.
This is what people don't understand about living on benefits --the precariousness & scariness of your life when other people are in charge of your income !!
has this happened to anybody else and how long did it take to sort ?

lisa_martin_2

Yes, this happend to someone I know about 3 months ago. There was no letter or any notification what so ever that this was going to happen.

I'm sorry for your troubles I believe if you phone DLA and ask them to switch you onto weekly payments they will do it. I am not 100% sure mind you.

zappster1966

Jobcentre Plus are under instructions to de-combine DLA from both Incapacity Benefit & Income Support. Eventually DLA will make all their own payments themselves. It'll reduce the massive amount of paperwork floating around between social security offices.

Combining benefits had advantages in the good ol' days of orderbooks, it made financial sense to pay all the benefits together on the same day in only one transaction at busy post offices. Now that most payments are made directly to bank accounts there's little if any advantage gained in combining benefits.

When they de-combine your benefit the IB section fax or post a form to the DLA Unit asking them to take over responsibility for your payments ... obviously a snafu has occured. I'd give the DLA Unit a ring in the morning to find out what's gone wrong.

mardatha

OK thanks. I have called everybody imaginable today so will leave it until maybe friday to call back. I am so shocked that nobody remembered to tell ME. I might be on benefit but I am still a person, who has to manage the household budget & the shopping !!
But the worst thing is .. you feel so mad but you have to be really NICE so that they wont "accidentally" lose more of your paperwork!!
I am off down to the OS forums now to learn how to live on fresh air for a few weeks..

calleyw

This happened to my husband at the start of the year and it also happened at the around the time of an appeal on DLA care. Which we won.

It took about 4/5 months to get sorted as every time he rang up DLA they said they had not been told by IB how much they had paid and up to when. Just a good job we could manage with out it. Nobody told him it was only when he rang up that he found out.

Hope you get sorted real soon.

Yours


Calley

mardatha

oh god. !! Thanks..

calleyw

mardatha wrote: »

oh god. !! Thanks..

As I said we had a appeal chucked in for good measure which made it even more difficult. We won the appeal at the end of Jan and did not get any more DLA until around end of may I think.

My husband had to keep ringing them.

As there is no appeal involved I would say yours would be a lot quicker (keeping my fingers crossed for you)

Yours

Calley

[Deleted User]

they did this to me last year following a review of my DLA but with NO warning,they then duplicated the payments for 3 weeks,even after i`d told them they were both paying me.!!!!!!!!
And yes if you write to them and explain that monthly DLA payments are causing hardship they will pay weekly

mardatha

I didnt even realize DLA was paid monthly.. I will be ok once I get into the swing of it, but chaos at the start. My god they dont believe in making life easy do they ! TY very much everybody. x

mardatha

I am calmer today but still angry. What if we had had DDs going out of the bank on this money ? We would have been in for bank charges..all because they cant be assed to type a simple letter telling me what is happening. It might be benefit , but its my money & that I have to live on !! And they call people on benefit all the names under the sun. cant help getting ill after a lifetime of hard physical work --and at least I have consideration & manners.
God I wish I knew voodoo.....

bestpud

This kind of thing makes no sense at all.

Surely it is cheaper, and a lot easier, to send a letter than deal with worried people phoning up to ask what is going on with their payments?

No wonder the telephone lines are always busy in these departments!

Sorry, that adds nothing to your question - it just annoys me!