Pension credit payment ?

Invalidation

I was forced to sign up for Pension credit several weeks ago and was told my Pension Credit would take over as from 6th Sept.
Previous to this I was in recepit of Income support and Incapacity benefit which I have been receiveing without problems since 1993.

My last IS payment was on 26th August and I was expecting some sort of payment today as the balance of my IS from 26th August untill the 5th September when it cut off. I havent been paid anything.

last week I was told my first Pension credit payment would be around 10 days from when it takes over on the 6th Spetember.
Assuming they mean 10 working days, that would mean I would have had no payments for around 4 weeks ?
Is this right as it doesnt seem so to me. We also dont have any money !

generalcuster

Invalidation wrote: »

I was forced to sign up for Pension credit several weeks ago and was told my Pension Credit would take over as from 6th Sept.
Previous to this I was in recepit of Income support and Incapacity benefit which I have been receiveing without problems since 1993.

My last IS payment was on 26th August and I was expecting some sort of payment today as the balance of my IS from 26th August untill the 5th September when it cut off. I havent been paid anything.

last week I was told my first Pension credit payment would be around 10 days from when it takes over on the 6th Spetember.
Assuming they mean 10 working days, that would mean I would have had no payments for around 4 weeks ?
Is this right as it doesnt seem so to me. We also dont have any money !

Hi,
I had a change of circumstances (started to receive a small pension) and I notified Pension Credit early August. The last payment I received was the 19th August - I get it weekly by giro - and nothing since. I have telephoned twice since then with promises that somebody will ring back, but no one does. I managed to get hold of the local Pension Service visiting officer yesterday and he said it is taking 6/8 weeks to change things and I will have to be patient. He also said current new claims are on the back burner at the moment due to staff shortages and volume of work - new cases can take 10/15 weeks to sort out before thay are paid.

gravitytolls

Based on General Custer's post, I'd get in touch with my MP if I were you.

In the meantime, you should apply for crisis loans/hardship payments, whatever it takes.

Invalidation

Weirdness abounds !
Just spoken to IS who confirm I was due for a payment from the 26 August to 5th September. She is going to try and sort it out as my information is now not available to her due to PC taking it over.
SO
Just spoken to crisis loans people. They have told me that a payment for Incapacity benefit was made to me by bank transfer yesterday and will be in my bank Monday, BUT that payment is for the period 3 Sept untill 9th September ?
Confused ? You betcha.
Pension Credit person was borderline rude. "Well your claim only became active as from monday so its being processed, how fast do you think we work here? " was his reply to my question.
I alwasy had a feeling this wasnt going to be a smooth transfer to PC and it looks like I was right.
I am now expecting the Housing people to be on my back for the rent.

Invalidation

Even more fun and games.
I have now just been informed that Incapacity benefit will still be paying me every week, and pension credit have told me they will be paying me £202 a week !! I'm going to be rich !! hahahaha Bahamas? Cap D'agde ??
No, If they do indeed do that I think I shall just put the IB money into a separate account untill they realise the cockup. At least I'll earn a penny or two in interest.
Now all I have to do is find out when I will get my pension Credit.

Sixtails

Because the state pension age is increasing, pension credit age is going up too so it used to be that there was a constant stream of people signing off jsa/is & going onto pc. Now theres only 4 days a year that people can make this change meaning that several hundred customers in each pension office are signing off on the same day which is obviously causing a backlog. These types of cases cannot be completed before the change over date, in this case 6/9/10 so pc can't even get a head start on the claims. Because of the amount of claims waiting in the same situation, they generally won't prioritise customers because theres so many other people in the same position - if they send requests for everyone that calls it won't make a difference because so many people will be calling.

What makes the situation worse is that in a lot of cases is & jsa don't close their case down properly & pc have to chase up is/jsa to get them to close their side which delays things by a day to start with.

I'm guessing from your post that you have a partner? Sadly, this means more bad news - in 99% of cases the partner on the claim needs to "be transferred" on the computer systems from is/jsa to pc a process which takes 48 hours & there is no way to speed this up or work around it. It doesn't matter how many mp's or managers you speak to - it won't change these delays.

Under the new rules, pc will follow your payment frequency from is, to if they are paying fortnightly the pc will too. Which week you get paid in (theres 2 fortnightly payment cycles) depends on your national insurance number & there is no way to alter that either.

IS will pay the part week payment uo to 5/9/10 & when pc is paid it will pay the odd days from 6/9/10 so no days are missed. PC will also verify all benefit rates from the payment systems so they will check your IB rate before paying pc. PC will deduct your current income, benefits etc. from £202 & pay the difference so the amount you will be awarded depends on this other income.

Sadly, this is one of the downsides of pension reform is that this is going to happen every few months & theres nothing that can be done about it. In response to this though, pc puts as many processing agents on these cases as possible to clear them as quick as possible because they know its a problem & they put the normal work on hold for a few days to try & clear the backlog asap

Invalidation

Many thanks for your detailed reply.
I am still aghast at the PC system. Ive now spoken to 4 people on the PC phoneline and got 4 different answers. It would seem to me that few, if any employees who are on the phoneline actually know what is going on. This situation is exacerbated by the lack of any letter or paperwork which would allay peoples fears.
In my case Ive been on top of the situation, informing my Local Authority of the switch and backing up my situation with a call to the Crisis Loans people to ensure money would be there should I need it.
IS made a serious mistake in not paying me yesterday for the period 26th August to 05 September and I had to make several phone calls before they admittied their mistake and have authorised payment.

But in my case (and I suspect others too) I did the PC registration over the telephone and was told by the registration person that, as soon as my PC took over from IS I would receive a letter informing me. That hasnt happened, in fact nothing has happened other than my IS ceased. Despite 4 more telephone calls I am still in situation of knowing nothing.

The other situation is that when my IS went from weekly to fortnightly, I was sent a nice letter explaining things and offering me a loan in the interim period. PC has not done this and have simply left people dangling in the air knowing nothing, with no offers of interim loans, one is left to fend for oneself. They refuse to pass on the local area office phone number (that in itself making one incredibly suspicious of incompetence) so one is left with the people who answer the PC phones who, as I have stated dont know anything.

Also your statement that my payments will follow my IS payments in their payment time (fortnightly) was also negated by a PC person who said once my payments started I could contact them and have any payment I wanted, Weekly, fortnightly or even monthly.

As I stated, Im bright enough and bolshie enough to be able to chase my case up, what worries me is those people who arent.

But again. Thanks for your reply

anmarj

Invalidation wrote: »

IS made a serious mistake in not paying me yesterday for the period 26th August to 05 September and I had to make several phone calls before they admittied their mistake and have authorised payment.

But in my case (and I suspect others too) I did the PC registration over the telephone and was told by the registration person that, as soon as my PC took over from IS I would receive a letter informing me.

the main problem is that IS and PC use the same system, so PC claim cannot be processed there and then, and if IS do not close the claim down properly then PC cannot process the claim and as you found out, it takes several phone calls to IS to sort out, as the attitude is it is no longer their problem.

we get plenty of calls for people on IS who call IS, to be told they have to call PC, when in fact they need IS. I remember one call where a payment for IS had been returned and IS told customer to call us to reissue payment. I had to explain that we could not pay IS payments, told daughter to speak to supervisor as the cust had problems for months getting the payment in the first place

Sixtails

The confirmation letter cannot be sent from pc until it has been paid, when the case is closed the letter is issued automatically but is computer generated so can take up to 2 weeks to arrive with you.

Regarding frequency of payments - pc should follow is frequency in this case fortnightly, agents can override this to weekly or 4 weekly but only if a customer specifically requests it. Under the new rules, pc agents aren't allowed to offer the customer a choice of frequency (although many agents still do).

PC don't have a facility to offer loans etc, anything of that nature is handled by the jobcentre. IS will have offered that because they were making a change to your existing payments, pc is a new benefit with new rules but follow the frequency of other benefits to try & ease the transition.

The number for local offices is not given out because the people in local offices are not benefit specific - they are not trained fully in pc, sp, dla etc, they just have an overview of knowledge in each benefit. They don't process applications, all they do is gather information which benefit offices request. Also, its rare that anyone is in the office, most of their time is spent completing home visits with customers. Honestly i don't know why you would want any form of contact number for a local office as they have nothing to do with your claim & couldn't help you

Invalidation

Sixtails wrote: »

The number for local offices is not given out because the people in local offices are not benefit specific - they are not trained fully in pc, sp, dla etc, they just have an overview of knowledge in each benefit. They don't process applications, all they do is gather information which benefit offices request. Also, its rare that anyone is in the office, most of their time is spent completing home visits with customers. Honestly i don't know why you would want any form of contact number for a local office as they have nothing to do with your claim & couldn't help you

I asked for the contact number as the PC line told me it was Cardiff that was dealing with my claim. If theres no one there, how can they deal with my claim?. I wanted to communicate with the office and people actually dealing with my specific claim.

I was also told that as I was on IS and IB and had been for over 16 years it would be a smooth 'slide' across of benefits and there should be no holdups, another of those tall tales !.

However, as stated, every time I called the PC people I was given a different contradictory answer. There is no consistency and it would seem to me that the people answering the PC line phones simply dont have a clue, an idea that was supported by both the IS and Crisis benefit people who voiced the same opinion.

My overall point is that people are left dangling in the air with no paperwork or anything from PC to indicate anything is, has, or will be happening and it is a totally unsatisfactory situation, as PC is dealing with people who may not be as vocal or expressive as myself.
One simply gets a letter from IS, saying, effectively "thats it mate, youre on your own now, you and Pension Credit.
All the letter lacked, for irony was "Good Luck"

Sixtails

The isn't a pension centre in cardiff, the only 2 in Wales are Swansea & Cwmbran. The only thing in Cardiff is the local visiting officers.

The telephone agents are not allowed to give the worst case scenario & the also can't list the faults of other offices. As anmarj has already explained the problems in 99% cases are caused by IS/JSA & PC then has to spend their time calling and/or emailing the IS/JSA offices to get them to close the claims properly. If this was done correctly & on time by IS/JSA then it would be a smooth transition to PC. Also, it doesn't matter how long you've been on benefits for, the same problems exist for every case.

In response to your overall point - if PC spent time sending letter, calling custs with updates etc. then less people would be paid because agents would be sending letters rather than paying claims. A letter is sent when the claim is paid or nilled so the customer knows the outcome. It also makes no difference how vocal a customer is, scans are run to make sure every claim is paid & as i stated in an earlier post - due to the number of people changing from IS/JSA to PC this week they won't prioritise cases because customers are calling, they will work through claims in order so that everyone is paid asap.