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DWP Insist We Are Partners!
Comments
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xXMessedUpXx wrote: »I had a similar problem, someone at the JC decided me and my flatmate were partners, they sent me a form to fill in asking why we lived together and how long we expected that arrangement to last, thankfully that was the last i've heard of it though i'd have welcomed a vist to prove it. Maybe ask them if they will come and visit so you can prove you're not together (seperate finances/how you live seperatly etc). For some reason men and women being housemates confuses them!
We had this a while ago. We have lived together for many years and last time I was in a relationship with someone so could point them her way, but now i'm not in a relationship...
I wonder what they would say if I was gay...0 -
I will give it a whirl then, thanks.
My concerns are both financial and otherwise.
I claim Income Support due to illness and have been working towards a return to work by doing Voluntary Work. She isn't claiming full ESA as she has some savings. I don't want them to then cut off my benefits forcing me to live off of her when her money is none of my business as we are solely friends/joint tennants. It may even affect our friendship if they stick to their guns as neither of us want to be labelled as each others partner.
She just wants to be left alone and is now wishing she never applied!
I would be careful about using this argument as it implies that you actually are partners. You wouldn't "live off" a housemate!0 -
It is my understanding (someone else can confirm) that when you claim ESA you get sent a statement, which you do not return to the benefit centre, it is yours to keep.....she should have this.
Does that say that she has a partner? If so, then she answered all the questions incorrectly on the telephone when she made her claim.
If it does, then my limited knowledge would be to say withdraw the claim and make a new one.
If she did not say on the phone she had a partner and the statement does not say this, and the BC has arbitrarily decided that she does, then her only course of action, (if they will do this on every claim she makes) would be to write a letter stating the facts to the benefit centre, and appeal to a tribunal if they stick to their guns and close her claim.
Likewise with your Income support (and I assume Incapacity Benefit) if they close them down then you will have to appeal.0 -
Libel/slander claim directed at the jobcentre or flatmate?
eH?
Defamation involves a statement that causes a person's reputation to be lowered in the minds of right-thinking citizens.
Having a partner doesn't seem to qualify....much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.0 -
Oldernotwiser wrote: »I would be careful about using this argument as it implies that you actually are partners. You wouldn't "live off" a housemate!
No, I wouldn't, but if they decided in their minds that we were partners, i'd lose my single adult Income Support and likely be told I must live off of her savings? Then when I went back into work, she would lose any ESA and be told that as I am working, she would not be entitled to anything.
We will sort it out. I've just realised my landlord has a welfare benefits officer who can help and I know my local MP quite well and he sorted a problem I had with Inland Revenue a few years back.
If all that fails, i'll carry on complaining until they recognise me as an individual and not a partnership that does not exist.
EDIT - Maybe we'll get some weird joint claim or something, but we are on different benefits, so I have no idea what they will do.It is my understanding (someone else can confirm) that when you claim ESA you get sent a statement, which you do not return to the benefit centre, it is yours to keep.....she should have this.
Does that say that she has a partner? If so, then she answered all the questions incorrectly on the telephone when she made her claim.
If it does, then my limited knowledge would be to say withdraw the claim and make a new one.
If she did not say on the phone she had a partner and the statement does not say this, and the BC has arbitrarily decided that she does, then her only course of action, (if they will do this on every claim she makes) would be to write a letter stating the facts to the benefit centre, and appeal to a tribunal if they stick to their guns and close her claim.
Likewise with your Income support (and I assume Incapacity Benefit) if they close them down then you will have to appeal.
They wouldn't take her claim by telephone as she had an open case, apparently, from 2009. Therefore they sent her a form to fill in instead in which she had to return to JCP with her medical certificate.0 -
No, I wouldn't, but if they decided in their minds that we were partners, i'd lose my single adult Income Support and likely be told I must live off of her savings? Then when I went back into work, she would lose any ESA and be told that as I am working, she would not be entitled to anything..
But you did state that, "forcing me to live off of her", which is why I said you should be careful.0 -
Oldernotwiser wrote: »But you did state that, "forcing me to live off of her", which is why I said you should be careful.
I will be careful, but they will be the ones that imply that I live off of her savings. They done it before a few years ago, but the other way around when I was working.
We passed that 'test' and nothing has changed other than I no longer have a partner.0 -
She should file a Data Subject request under the Data Protection Act to find out exactly what their records say.They have sent her form back and asked her to fill in the 'your partner' sections as their records 'show she has a partner'.
Furthermore, if they are unable to say how this information entered their system, then they have committed a criminal offence."Never underestimate the mindless force of a government bureaucracyseeking to expand its power, dominion and budget"Jay Stanley, American Civil Liberties Union.0 -
WhiteHorse wrote: »She should file a Data Subject request under the Data Protection Act to find out exactly what their records say.
Furthermore, if they are unable to say how this information entered their system, then they have committed a criminal offence.
I've not heard of this so i'll go and read up on how she would file one as it would be interesting to see how and when it appeared on their records.0 -
This is on the DWP website. dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-information/#how-do-i - you need to add the 3 w's at the beginning as it won't let me post a link.
Can I use this and is this as good as a Data Subject Request?0
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