Any benefits experts on here

socrates

I have a family friend who has been made redundant and has been signed off sick for months who needs to claim ESA. He is prepared to pay an expert to complete all the paperwork and give advice.

Located in North East London

You can PM me

Thanks in advance

zappster1966

He doesn't have to fill in an application form. He phones his application through, DWP staff fill the form in for him, post it to his house, he checks & signs it then hands it into the Job Centre. If the Job Centre can't answer his queries I'm sure someone here can ... at no cost !!

real1314

Paying for help to fill in these sorts of applications is really a bad idea imho. It's not moneysaving for one thing, and I wouldn't expect anyone to be able help any more than a decently educated friend could.

munchings-n-crunchings

Hello Socrates,

If you friend feel that they need some expert advice I would suggest one of the two options.
Firstly there is the CAB. At most centres, you can make an appointment in advance, to save on the waiting time.

Secondly, there is Welfare Rights. Normally they are part of your county council, and hold local surgeries.

Both of them are free of charge.

Regards

Munchie.

socrates

Thanks - he wants to pay and asked me to ask!

I am only following orders..

dmg24

Maybe you could help him, and if he insists on giving you some money, give it to charity?

I would agree with real1314, and I would question the motives of anyone willing to accept money for such a task.

socrates

Perhaps I should explain some more - his language skills are limited so I would be doing the translation part. I do not have the specialist knowledge.

People who do perform this task do exist

Don't shoot the messenger!

dmg24

You don't need specialist knowledge to complete the ESA forms. Even if you go to CAB, the likelihood is that you will only see a volunteer and their knowledge is only from experience and/ or information that is available online (in most cases this will be the latter, especially for ESA).

If you have any specific questions, we can try to help you with them.

If you know that these people do exist, perhaps you could tell us where to find them?

alwaysonthego_2

As dmg points out you do not need expert knowledge to fill out benefit forms.

In my role as a cab adviser (2 years service) I have filled out numerous forms out for clients (not done a ESA yet) but i would not call myself an expert. I usually have learnt from experience or other people's experience (my superviser).

welshmoneylover

socrates wrote: »

Perhaps I should explain some more - his language skills are limited so I would be doing the translation part. I do not have the specialist knowledge.

People who do perform this task do exist

Don't shoot the messenger!

Hi Socrates

Is your mate dyslexic at all?

Sue

socrates

welshmoneylover wrote: »

Hi Socrates

Is your mate dyslexic at all?

Sue

What does dyslexia have to do with poor English as in needs a translator?