Problems with ALG, What should I do?

Driving_Soon

Hey, Since I first applied for ALG in Aug 08, I have had so many problems!
- Aug 08 I applied for ALG
- Sep 08 I receive a letter stating I have been accepted, but I will only get £10.00 a week due to be earning over a certain amount last year
- Sep 09 I contacted ALG by phone and said even though I earned over a particular amount last year, this year the only income I have is from a little P/T Job, and they said I should be able to get the £30 a week and they will do what they have to do.
- Oct 08 I have not heard anything, so I ring them up 3 times in October, each time I am told they will get back to me in 2-3 days, they never do!
- Nov 08 I send a letter to ALG, saying that I have heard nothing, and asking if they could let me know as soon as to what is happening
- Nov 08 I hear nothing, so I ring them, they say they have received my letter and it should take 2-3 working days
Since Nov 08, I have rang up every week to see how it is going on, and each time I ring up they tell me I will hear next week and the learning skills council will make the decision.
I have just had enough now! It has been over 5 months since I first contacted them about the problem and 3 months since they said the appeal has been sent to the learning skills council! So why have I not heard anything? Each time I ring up they just try to fob me off!
I just want to get it sorted, the £30 a week will make such a difference to me, and even if they refuse the appeal, at least I know!
I just feel like I have tried everything! Letters, more than 23 phone calls (not including the times they tell me they can’t take my call at that specific time)
In the ALG booklet it states if you earn particular less than the last tax year, let them know and they will go through various assessments and you may get the £30! So I am just doing what they say, but still they don’t seem to interested!
If anyone has got any ideas or have been in similar positions then please let me know!

Oldernotwiser

Have you invloved your Student Services in this problem? In many places they would try to sort it out on your behalf. What about trying to get a contact name at the LSC if that's where the problem lies.
I hope you get it sorted out soon.

Driving_Soon

Hey oldernotwiser

I have talked to SS and all they could do for me is give me the address to write a complaint to lol! Not much help really!

I have also asked for a contact name and they said they were unable to give it to me!

Its Crazy, just like hitting my head against a brick wall! grrrr lol.

mister_bidger

To my shame, I've worked as a temp for the company that processes ALG payments, so I hope I can shed some light on what is going on.

You won't have been forgotten about. The problem is simply that the filing system is atrocious. If an application is complete - with all the necessary paperwork included - it gets dealt with pretty efficiently on the whole. (I was only a temp, so I don't have any vested interest in 'bigging up' the company.) But if applicants need writing back to because they have forgotten to include, for example, a bank statement, or if - like you - an adjustment needs to be made in respect of their personal circumstances, then their application needs to be pulled by hand out of a really-badly designed filing system. Until it is, the rules say that - even though all the information in your file has been transfered on to the computer screen that the call centre people look at when they speak to you - everything stays on hold.

We had a list of files needing to be found that got updated on a daily basis, as files were found and new files needed to be found. Nothing got taken off that list until it was found, and the filing system as a whole was - at the time I left - slowly getting better, but once someone has put a file in the wrong place, it stays there until someone like me spots the fact.

Trust me, we were really uncomfortable that people are being made to wait so long - and it's worse that no-one explains why. If the company that originally adminstered the ALG had done their job properly, no-one would be in the situation you are - but it didn't, it had the contract taken away from it, and people like me are now busy clearing up the mess as well as they can.

You're just going to have to sit tight on this, but it will get sorted out - eventually.

Petlamb

ALG are an utter joke (especially this year from what I can gather)..

I started my application in September, there were no issues on the lines of yours but somehow I still don't have anything, not even a letter of entitlement/ notice to say i've been accepted...

In these last few months they've lost it, sent it back when they shouldn't have, failed to read it correctly and generally mucked everything up that they could.

So I'm sorry but no solutions from me, but my sympathies! (Deepest sympathies... fancy joining forces on a somewhat violent mission?!)

Driving_Soon

mister bidger - Thanks for your post! I was worried that I had been forgottern about and they are just trying to fob me off each time, so thank you!

Vampire - Sorry to hear about your problems! And count me in with that mission! haha

JennaLouise

yeh i think ALG have totally messed up this year big time!!
i sent my application in september...
got one back in october saying that i was too qualified because i had already completed a BTEC national diploma (which is not completed as i am still on it)
so i rang them.. they told me to write which i did straight away
then at the end of dec i received my letter of entitlement which i handed in on the first day of term...
and i havent received any payment off them

Driving_Soon

JennaLouise wrote: »

yeh i think ALG have totally messed up this year big time!!
i sent my application in september...
got one back in october saying that i was too qualified because i had already completed a BTEC national diploma (which is not completed as i am still on it)
so i rang them.. they told me to write which i did straight away
then at the end of dec i received my letter of entitlement which i handed in on the first day of term...
and i havent received any payment off them

Sorry to hear about your problems, Its crazy how a organisation like this can work this badly

I had rang them up today to complain again :rotfl: and they the lady first told me I should never have been told a time scale of how long it would be til I hear and then at the end of the phonecall she told me it would be a week til I hear :rotfl: You can't make it up!

I found that the learning skills council has a website! So I have emailed them! god knows if it will do any good, but its worth a go?

Magnolia

If you go onto the LSC website you can find the area you are in and check out who the Director of learning is - fancy! It gives their phone number - now I wonder what a ALG'er could do with that then

Also - emails to the area could be made FAO 'Whatsername'

Not that I am actively encouraging you to contact them you understand;)

Won't we need a mission statement

Driving_Soon

Magnolia wrote: »

If you go onto the LSC website you can find the area you are in and check out who the Director of learning is - fancy! It gives their phone number - now I wonder what a ALG'er could do with that then

Also - emails to the area could be made FAO 'Whatsername'

Not that I am actively encouraging you to contact them you understand;)

Won't we need a mission statement

Haha! Thank you!

Driving_Soon

Well .. I have waited long enough so I have took Magnolia advice! I have emailed the LSC in my Area, Lets hope I get some answers now lol!