Suspension

ahai1

My benefits have been suspended due to part time work I have sent in the neccessary paperwork but they keep asking for it again and again. I get the feeling I am going around in cricles.

I have sent the information in a few times to the central processing team at Hackney.

zappster1966

You need to get on the phone to the Benefit Delivery Centre (Hackney), establish if they've received your documentation (payslips ?) and request that they deal with it promptly so that you don't suffer any hardship.

If you've missed a payment because of the benefit suspension then ask for a local payment today at the Job Centre. Usually prompts them to deal with your claim immediately.

ahai1

The benefits delivery centre have told me that someone will get in contact with me.

My local office turn people away like all JC's from what I understand just tell people to phone the delivery centre.

zappster1966

Sorry I didn't word the above particularly well, I meant for you to ask the Benefit Delivery Centre for a local payment today, for you to collect at the Job Centre. Apols.

In your benefit delivery centre they've probably got a telephone team which deals with all the fairly straightforward stuff. Anything complicated will get passed onto a team which maybe has a wee bit more to sit down & work things out. Hopefully you'll get word back from them either this afternoon or tmorro morning to explain what happens next.

Hope it goes OK

ahai1

I have been in contact with them as I have explained for sometime. One of the things is that this has happened before. I find that the Hackney office takes a long time to make a decision for exmaple I was asked once to resubmit the information multiple times.

One other thing is that when I phone up I get a different officer calling me back everytime and they ask for the information. I was told that the last action taken on the account was last Thursday even though since then I have sent stuff via post and also I have had contact with a member of staff on Friday.

I was told by the man answering the phone that he has to email another section. I get the feeling that the staff working there don't really know what is going on.

ahai1

Can you also tell me why the stuff goes missing so many times?

zappster1966

ahai1 wrote: »

Can you also tell me why the stuff goes missing so many times?

It seldom goes missing, in the sense that it can't be found by anyone at all.

When the post comes in it's divided by type. First the "easy" stuff gets sifted out (change of addresses, new babies born etc etc). The easy stuff gets done by the telephone team before the phone lines open, after they close & during those (rare) times of the day when the phonelines are quiet.

The rest of the post gets sent to the team which deal with the difficult stuff. Earnings/income (your payslips), student awards, Severe Disability Premium, benefit recoveries, mortgages & complaints/appeals. And when it arrives on that section it all gets split up into type & placed in folders or bundled together with similar types of mail. And there can be mountains of similar mail. Honestly. Bundle after bundle of letters & forms.

So when you phone up and ask "have you got my payslips" someone has to go plough through all that post. And it might not be there. Because it could be on someone's desk in yet another pile. Who's desk ? Anyones. Depending on the size of the office it could be on any one of 20/30 desks.

Can you imagine how long it takes to find one payslip ? Ages. Meanwhile the person looking for that payslip isn't answering the phone or processing claims.

That's why it's way more easy (and untruthful) to simply say "No we don't have your payslip - send it in again".

Shocker, huh ?

ahai1

Thanks I had no idea they were that badly organised. Haven't they tried to develop a better system for doing this?

zappster1966

ahai1 wrote: »

Thanks I had no idea they were that badly organised. Haven't they tried to develop a better system for doing this?

That's it well organised. To do it any better would mean employing staff at the most junior grade, Administrative Assistant, and that's something the Treasury won't let the DWP do because of the pressure to reduce the staff headcount.

ahai1

Doesn't this actually increase the workload in the long run?

I have read the centres are awful I mean in terms of things like delays and lost stuff and bad customer service (not my words but the words of a Commons Select Committee) How bad is the suitation?

I have been told a few times to resend stuff.

zappster1966

Yes it does increase the workload.

The only way to solve it is either to take staff off the phones & off processing to better sort the mail (hundreds of letters/forms come in every day) ... that would mean fewer folk would get through on the phone & that claim processing would be delayed ... or to employ more staff (and that's a non starter).

Better ways of working are always being looked at. You might find one member of staff dealing only with payslips/earnings all day. In theory he/she would have your payslip and it should be easy to locate. Other days there might be no-one looking after payslips/earnings because there simply isn't enough staff to cover everything.

Complain about not being able to get through on the phone & they'll take staff off processing to put on the phones. That causes delays & error in benefit payments. When complaints come in about that they'll shift someone back to processing.

It's damage limitation really, always has been but is noticeably worse since they reorganised/closed the old Social Security Offices.