Pension credit application/complaint?

Taliahmai

Hi all,

My parents applied for pension credit 7 weeks ago after a visit from a money advice lady (from dwp). My mum was advised to retire and put in for pension credit as they would be better off if they both retired. So my mum gave up work and applied. The last 7 weeks they have had no money coming in except £80 a month for my dads pension and they just can not afford to live on that, its not even covering their gas/electric. My mum has been on the phone every day to them bt they refuse to tell her how much longer they will need to wait, just saying, but it will all be back dated. Now thats all well and good, but it doesnt help the fact they can not afford to live now. Is there any way of speeding them up/finding out about their claim?? The lady my mums spoke to just keeps telling her to stop ringing as she is been too impatient.....shes not the one sat in a freezing house with no food!

The only way they have managed at the moment is because ive been buying them bits of food with my shopping and ive been putting £15 gas and £10 electric a week....now dont get me wrong i dont begrudge it at all, and wouldnt not do it for them....but im on income support myself with 3 kids, and in all fairness i just cant afford to run two houses.

They was awarded a crisis loan 2 weeks ago for £124, but as you can imagine after 7 weeks with no money, it doesnt go far, they still have bills to pay (which they are now in debt with)

Ive just been round now and they are both in bed, fully clothes with dressing gowns and coats on to keep warm! (they wont ask me for money so didnt tell me the gas had gone) It just makes me so mad that they can be left for so long with no money and no one seams bothered

Sorry for such a long rant and thank you

[Deleted User]

contact their MP and ask him/her for urgent help,one phone call from an MP is worth a 100 from your mum

missmucksmum

They should be able to get another crisis loan or maybe try and get in touch with a local food bank? x

missapril75

It sounds like there's a particular problem.
Ownership of a property other than where they live? Capital that has reduced quickly?

Either way, the payment of a crisis loan is intended to cover VERY minimal needs for a specified period and that implies that on the day following that period there is an expectation of income.

This could, of course be your dad's next pension.

Either way there are two possible advantages of a further crisis loan application. One is obviously having some cash and the other is a tactical one.

The loans are supposed to be a last resort and if DWP is happy that the Pension Credit is actually due but that they simply haven't got around to doing it yet, then the loans staff will often say - "sort that claim out if it's due because we shouldn't be doing a loan if you can pay."

What prompted the money advice visit?

Taliahmai

thanks for your advice guys...

The money advice visit was after my mum was told they could be entitled to extra help with rent etc while mum was working, so someone came to see them to go through incomings/outgoings etc to see if they were entitled to claim anything. After doing that the lady advised mum to retire and claim pension credit through my dad (as my mums not quite old enough). They are living in a council house with no other properties and no savings. The next pension payment is due this next week (friday 1st) which will help, its just so frustrating and causing arguments between my mum and dad. Its just not nice to watch.

My mum did talk to a lady from the call center 2 weeks ago who told her they had received everything and it just needed authorizing....but that obviously hasn't been done yet!

Whiteknight

Sounds like your father completed a form, would have been much quicker if he had just done the telephone application and saved all the hassle of forms needing to be sent back to the pension centre.

Are you sure that it was a staff member from the DWP and not someone from some other organisation who came to visit as it seems odd for a member of staff from DWP to be offering money advice?

Dunroamin

How old are your parents - if your mother's old enough to get PC I don't understand why she wasn't claiming her pension.

satarical

Taliahmai wrote: »

Hi all,

My parents applied for pension credit 7 weeks ago after a visit from a money advice lady (from dwp). My mum was advised to retire and put in for pension credit as they would be better off if they both retired. So my mum gave up work and applied. The last 7 weeks they have had no money coming in except £80 a month for my dads pension and they just can not afford to live on that, its not even covering their gas/electric. My mum has been on the phone every day to them bt they refuse to tell her how much longer they will need to wait, just saying, but it will all be back dated. Now thats all well and good, but it doesnt help the fact they can not afford to live now. Is there any way of speeding them up/finding out about their claim?? The lady my mums spoke to just keeps telling her to stop ringing as she is been too impatient.....shes not the one sat in a freezing house with no food!

The only way they have managed at the moment is because ive been buying them bits of food with my shopping and ive been putting £15 gas and £10 electric a week....now dont get me wrong i dont begrudge it at all, and wouldnt not do it for them....but im on income support myself with 3 kids, and in all fairness i just cant afford to run two houses.

They was awarded a crisis loan 2 weeks ago for £124, but as you can imagine after 7 weeks with no money, it doesnt go far, they still have bills to pay (which they are now in debt with)

Ive just been round now and they are both in bed, fully clothes with dressing gowns and coats on to keep warm! (they wont ask me for money so didnt tell me the gas had gone) It just makes me so mad that they can be left for so long with no money and no one seams bothered

Sorry for such a long rant and thank you

7 weeks is not a long time for the Pension Service. A year or two ago they quoted a minimum of 20 weeks!!!

I telephoned them once for a similar problem and their attitude was "Have you got any money coming into the household? Yes a little. Well there are others who have nothing coming in so they take priority"

As an example, a claim for PC was submitted in Sept 09, they managed to get the first payment and backdated monies out in Feb 2010. They then carried on paying it until Aug 2010, when it was stopped. No reason or explanation was given and in March 2011 the claim was closed by the Pension Service for failure to submit information within 30 days of it being requested. No such request was ever received, but they still closed the claim down!
Addirionally, it took the Pension Service from Sept 09 until April 2011 to accept that they had lost three MI12 forms (housing costs) - they found them all after making denial after denial.

They are the worst government department to deal with and get a straight answer out of them.

missapril75

satarical wrote: »

7 weeks is not a long time for the Pension Service. A year or two ago they quoted a minimum of 20 weeks!!!

I doubt that very much. Got a link?

DWP aim to deal with benefit claims within a ‘reasonable length of time’.
In practice they set a target to process customer claims within an average number of working days. As these benefits are processed in different ways, their targets are different.
In 2010/11, the targets were:

• Income Support - 9 days
• Jobseeker's Allowance - 11 days
• Employment and Support Allowance - 14 days
• Pension Credit - 10 days

Of course there are exceptions where claims can take longer. But that means some will be quicker.

I telephoned them once for a similar problem and their attitude was "Have you got any money coming into the household? Yes a little. Well there are others who have nothing coming in so they take priority"

In extreme situations, an entirely reasonable response.

I was working there when postal claim forms were introduced. We went from clearing claims within a couple of days of the interview to a routine backlog of claims where we were processing those received at least 6 weeks earlier.

So when people phoned it was a waste of time to look for one claim among the hundreds lined up in chronological order. That time was better spent paying the benefit. Inevitably there were people with children, no income, last wages spent of food, rent etc and they would get priority.

Would you rather be in that situation and have your claim take another couple of weeks while those less needy and with alternative means can afford to wait but get paid first?

People (staff and applicants) should never be in that sort of position. In the real world they are and they have to make the best of a bad situation.

tibawo

The days you quote are targets. They had these when I was at dwp yet I knew you were talking weeks and would be told to skirt round the answer.

I would go mp route.

satarical

10 days??? for Pension Credit. I am hodling off making a claim that could have been made a few weeks ago simply because the guy on the telephone in December 2012 told me "we would hope to have your claim in payment within 8 weeks"

Mind you he did say that it does depend on how fast the evidence can be gathered. If they have to write for evidence and I have to reply plus the delay in getting together what they want and then the further delay of them dealing with it could well add another 6 weeks to it - making up to 14 weeks in total.

I am waiting for some money to come in that will carry me over the anticipated 14 weeks.

So if they say 10 days and it does take 14 weeks - will the DWP compensate me for the interest that I will incur on my overdraft and credit cards?

AND ESA - 14 days!!! Don't make me laugh. My original claim for ESA back in September 2009, took until the February 2010 before I saw any money!!!