Appreciate some advice

RADAR-30

Hi Guys,

I hope someone here may be able to offer some advice with regard to dealing with the DWP.

My girlfriend is in receipt of Income Support and has applied for a Budgeting Loan and the DWP have agreed that she can have a loan, she received the loan offer on the 17th April and she sent back the acceptance letter on the date of receipt and she duly waited believing that it would take a week at the maximum to be dealt with as on previous occasions.

However, after hearing nothing for a couple of weeks she called the DWP and they informed her that they had not received the letter of acceptance and issued a duplicate which she signed and sent back for the second time and called them again after a few days as advised by the DWP and they said they had not received this either, so a 3rd duplicate was sent out and she called again only this time to be told that they had now received the 2nd letter and that they would be processing it and she should be paid the loan in a couple of days.

To cut a long story short they havent paid the loan and are now saying that they have to wait for the letter to be linked to her account and keep advising to call the next day and again the next day. She has gotten tired of doing this now and explained this to an adviser on tuesday of this week who had said he would send an email to request the process be speeded up, she called agin today as advised to see how this progressed only to be told sorry but they havent read the email, we'll send another.

My question is this. What is the best way to deal with this now and can she request to speak to a manager? Would this help?

I have just come back from Afghanistan as I am in the Army, to see a very stressed out girlfriend and I feel powerless to help her as I dont know the best way to deal with the DWP.

Sorry for the long rant but any advice would be appreciated

suelees1

yes she must speak to a manager

RADAR-30

Thanks Suelees.

Do you know if it is easy to speak to a manager? By that I mean would a call handler that my girlfriend normally has to speak to put her through to a manager?

suelees1

no but she can ask for a call back

RADAR-30

OK, Thank you very much.

KeaneFan10

Sorry have to ask if your in the army why does your girlfriend get income support ?

elsien

You're presuming they live together. Not everyone does.

Indie_Kid

Get her to write a letter of complaint - make sure she keeps a copy.

RADAR-30

As elsien quite rightly points out not everyone lives together, My girlfriend and I live in different areas of the country. But thanks for asking anyway. Thanks also to sh1305 I will certainly tell her to write that letter.

suelees1

If you want to write in I'd also ring to ask for a call back from a manager. There are delays with most Jobcentres answering mail

RADAR-30

Well, My girlfriend called the DWP again yesterday and requested that she speak to a manager because she has now been told sorry we have your acceptance letter but we have lost your original application form. As you may guess she is absolutely livid as the application form has her name, address, income details and most important of all her banking details.

The manager that she was told would call never did. What exactly can be done or said about losing peoples information? Is this a breach of Data Protection?