OMG ESA Sanction

Pepzofio

qwertyuiop12345 wrote: »

If you have evidence showing this is a common occurance you should definitely inform someone involved in organising how the letters are sent out as it would imply that there is some strange systemic error occuring.

Why "should" they? And who exactly would you have ESA contact with these findings?

I frequently deal with HB claimants who swear blind that they never received the letters asking for further information, only the one informing them of an overpayment/that their benefit had stopped. It must be a truly strange systemic error if it affects LAs all over the country as well as JCP...

In many large organisations, letters are requested by an operative and then sent out from a centralised postroom. I dare say some addresses are incorrect, I dare say some letters go missing in the post. I dare say some claimants lie (or "forget") about having received letters. I'm not making any assertions about which of these is true in jox's case, and I don't think ESA was either.

sharski

I agree - we come across this a heck of a lot in my JC...
We are constantly amazed at the amount of people who receive no letter at all but ALWAYS get the one telling them a sanction has been applied..

NASA_2

To qwertywhatever - Its a known problem that some post goes 'missing' en route to the benefit claimants. Even when that post is handed to them in a benefit office it has been known not to have reached the claimant. So very strange.

I dont doubt that there are some occurances of the Jobcentre holding the wrong address, but, there are more that I have seen where the correct address is held on both systems.

And anyway, I wasnt pointing fingers at anyone, just expressing my bemusement.

dilli-theclaw

I frequently don't get post from DWP / Job center and have to phone them to get copeis of award letters etc...

As for when I ask them for it in braille it takes about two months to get that copy.

Macro_3

Pepzofio wrote: »

Why "should" they? And who exactly would you have ESA contact with these findings?

I frequently deal with HB claimants who swear blind that they never received the letters asking for further information, only the one informing them of an overpayment/that their benefit had stopped. It must be a truly strange systemic error if it affects LAs all over the country as well as JCP...

In many large organisations, letters are requested by an operative and then sent out from a centralised postroom. I dare say some addresses are incorrect, I dare say some letters go missing in the post. I dare say some claimants lie (or "forget") about having received letters. I'm not making any assertions about which of these is true in jox's case, and I don't think ESA was either.

I agree, the amount of further information letters/suspension letters not received is astounding. As is the amount of claim forms/letter responses posted out to us which don't arrive. Somewhere there is a letter/application form mountain rotting away.

I can understand one letter going astray, but there are usually three sent over the course of two months before the cancellation notification, plus a phone call or three if a no. is supplied. I do 70% of my own letters so the error is not systemic in my case. Maybe the postal department are eating them?

It's a shame but when you hear it on (quite literally) a daily basis you stop believing it.

baza52

Macro wrote: »

It's a shame but when you hear it on (quite literally) a daily basis you stop believing it.

so if i were to say to you i had not received a letter you would automatically asume im lying?

NASA_2

I would say the absence of belief is not the same as saying someone is lying. It could well be true but its hard to believe.

mrcow

baza52 wrote: »

so if i were to say to you i had not received a letter you would automatically asume im lying?

No - but I'd probably automatically assume that you are incompetent.

As I would with any company who tells me that they'd not received certain correspondence.

Macro_3

baza52 wrote: »

so if i were to say to you i had not received a letter you would automatically asume im lying?

Nope, I'd write you another, post it out, ring to check you'd received it ok and extend the time you had to get it back to me, happily.

However, if you told me that you hadn't received any of the three letters I'd sent out, or the message I left on your answer machine, but somehow got the cancellation, and then I looked on your claim and found you'd have a few similar cancellations over the years for the same reason, I might wonder.

It's not usually a case of just one letter missing.

CRANKY40

Can I just say that today, our regular postie was missing. I realised when I picked my post of the mat and it was for next door. I shouted the postie back, told him what he'd done and asked if I had any post. He told me I didn't. I then walked round to the house before ours, where he'd shoved the post in the little box on their wall instead of the letter box, intending to retrieve it and put it through the letterbox. Guess what? That's right, it was our post, including our formal mortgage offer and something that my dh needed to sign before he goes to The Falklands on Sunday.

Goodness only knows where he started shoving stuff through the wrong doors.....we're 103 and it's a long road. No wonder letters go astray.