Redundancy Payments Office - The Insolvency Service (Birmingham)

tifosi

Has anyone else had recent experience with the Redundancy Payments (Birmingham office) section of the Insolvency Service?

I have been claiming redundancy payments from them (as advised by MSE) and contacting them is an absolute nightmare


Diary of events:

2nd July - sent form

2nd week of August - received a letter dated 18th July ( !!!) asking for payslips, copy of contract etc - I am unsure whether the delay is down to Royal Mail or the I.S just posting the letter late as it was a barcoded, rather than postmarked, letter.

At this point I tried contacting the office via both the email address and two phone numbers on the letter (one for the main line, the other for the case worker)

Case workers line just didnt pick up - no answer phone, nothing - just timed out

Main line is an automated line giving a very long winded message about how busy they are and that they hope to process most cases within 3 weeks, but 98% within 6 weeks ("however, we are currently experiencing high volumes of...")

Email'd several times - absolutely no response

Eventually got an email response by tracking people down via linked in, etc and adding " "at" insolvency.gsi.gov.uk" to their names (had 4 emails rejected due to the people no longer working there).

Sent all required information via scanned docs and was told this had been accepted and the claim would be processed within 4-7 working days.

Last Tuesday, contacted same person questioning payment not having arrived and was told my bank account had not been entered on the form.

Gave bank details to person and asked them to confirm receipt by return email.

No response to this email or a further 2 emails sent over 36 hours.

Managed to track down a head office customer service guy who promised to get them to contact me that afternoon and was true to his word.

When they contacted me they told me the amount that would be sent and confirmed the bank account, and stated it had been sent to "Finance" on Tuesday and that I should expect to wait 4 working days for payment.

However, they also stated that I needed to sign a separate form to confirm I had not received pay during the notice period and this form would be sent out to me.

Later that afternoon I received an email from the case worker (which I personally believe is a fake name just used for general contact so nobody gets calls/etc) containing a letter showing the breakdown of the amounts being paid.

They did not however include a copy of the letter I needed to sign to get the notice payment (the breakdown only covered owed holiday pay and the actual redundancy payment).

I replied asking for a copy of the form to prevent further delays to me receiving the rest of the funds and to date I have received no response to that email or follow ups sent yesterday.

In addition, the number on the case workers letter that previously just rand and rang is now "temporarily unavailable" according to a BT recorded message.


So, my take on all the above:

1) If the original letter was left for weeks without posting, why?

2) When they agreed to pay the claim, why was it only when I contacted them the following week that they questioned the lack of a bank account number ? - surely this should have come to light as soon as it was processed? (I appreciate it was my fault but I don't consider it unreasonable to expect them to be proactive in their approach rather than just sitting back and waiting for me to contact them when the money doesn't show up)

3) Why do they carry on giving out telephone numbers that nobody can contact them on?

4) In addition, one of the main email addresses listed on letters bounces with "this email address is no longer in use - please use the following email address..." - if this is the case, why carry on sending letters with the wrong email address?.

5) Why was the notice confirmation form not sent along with the statement of the amounts due on Tuesday (or for that matter, weeks ago when they would have known I had to sign this prior to receiving the notice payment)

:mad:

Has anyone else suffered similar experiences from Redundancy Payments section, Birmingham?

Johno100

tifosi wrote: »

Eventually got an email response by tracking people down via linked in, etc and adding " "at" insolvency.gsi.gov.uk" to their names (had 4 emails rejected due to the people no longer working there).

They are probably amongst the third of staff made redundant. And so it is not surprising your calls or emails are not being replied to.

You might want to contact this man:-

Norman Lamb MP
[EMAIL="normanlambmp@gmail.com"]normanlambmp@gmail.com[/EMAIL]

The minister at the Department for Business responsible for The Insolvency Service.

tifosi

Hi,

Cheers for that info, I will indeed contact him.

Perhaps I should have made clearer that my gripe is with those in authority

Quite obvious these people are massively undermanned (right at at a time when no doubt there workload is multiples of what it was a few years ago)

gouveia1978

Hi am having the same problems, made redundant end of JUNE didn't get contacted by this joke of a company until 10th September asking for the same info which had already been sent numerous times by my employer, I emailed them the information. Had a letter on saturday saying that they have 'assumed' I have withdrawn my case as I had not responded - I have been waiting patiently for about 12 weeks, and that letter has tipped me over the edge!!!!

My case worker is Margaret Harris - her number on the letter head is incorrect, it states that her office is Birmingham just been told she works in Watford and they are on training.

I will be complaining and making the biggest fuss to everyone on this and getting in touch with that MP, what a joke!!!!

PS I'm still on hold.....