Urgent Help Please Income Support

lemontree

On 28/02/07 my Son was admitted to a Detox Unit. He had been on Jobseekers Allowance for some time but was unable to obtain work because of his addiction to Alcohol.
I rang the Jobcentre and they asked for him to provide information to take him off JS and this was completed.
I rang the Local Benefits Office and they told me to send a letter of authority and a sick note as he was unable to deal with the claim himself.
I sent both but a week later they said they had received neither and I would have to obtain a duplicate sick note. I made the 40 mile round trip and obtained a duplicate sick note. When I arrived home they had returned the original sick note with a form for Incapacity Benefit.
Both sick notes and completed form delivered by hand and I was told not to ring for about 10 days as they had a back log.
I rang every week and was told they were very busy but on the 13th of April I insisted that they gave me a progress report. I was then told that he was not entitled to Incapacity Benefit as he did not have the NI Stamps needed.
They gave me a number for my Son to ring and the did a Telephone Interview.
He has now recieved Income Support dated only from April 13th.
I rang today and queried the decision but was told they had followed Government Guide lines and the fact that I have spent a lot of money financing my Son, travelling miles to collect information and being fobbed off by the many people at the Call Centre many of whom were impolite and said my calls were delaying the many claims they had to deal with was irrelevant.
He said I could write in but he did not think it would do any good.
As I have never had to claim before I relied on their advice and feel I have been let down badly.
Has anyone else had this problem?
Any advice would be most welcome.

Fran

You should put in an appeal re the Income Support decision, the best thing would be to get help from you local Citizens Advice Bureau or other welfare benefits advisers in your area. You have a month from the date on the decision letter in which to appeal.

You should also put in a complaint to the Jobcentre- ring and ask for their full complaints procedure and skip the local ones and go to the regional person/people as the local ones have already let you down.

I don't see any excuse for them not giving you an Income Support form/making an appointment for IS call at the same time as you got the Incapacity Benefit form - they could clearly see (and hear from you) from your son's JSA claim that he hadnt worked recently and would not be entitled to IB. It is necessary to fill in the IB form and be rejected for that before claiming Income Support even though it is obvious the claimant won't get it for some peculiar time wasting reason.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

mclaren_2

he wont be entitled to any other benifits apart from IS for a while, because of the NI contributions.

Because the initial claim was for IB and not IS, they only date it from the date of 1st enquirey, thus 13th april

lemontree

I do not dispute what you say Mclaren but not having claimed for anything before, I asked for advice and was told to claim for IB and was told 6 weeks later that he was not entitled to this.
It was only when I complained at the number of times I rang and was told it was in the system and required an explanation that I was told he was claiming for the wrong benefit.

Tran

lemontree wrote: »

I do not dispute what you say Mclaren but not having claimed for anything before, I asked for advice and was told to claim for IB and was told 6 weeks later that he was not entitled to this.
It was only when I complained at the number of times I rang and was told it was in the system and required an explanation that I was told he was claiming for the wrong benefit.

Most people are told to put in a claim for IB AND IS at the same time to stop what has happened to you. This way, if you find (as your son has) that he is not eligible for IB, then he will get IS form the date of the original application.

real1314

Write in, explaining exactly what has gone on, and ask for the decision to award IS from 13/04/07 to be reviewed, as you made your first contact on 28/02/07 and believe that IS should be awarded from that date.

Also state in the letter that if they are unable to award IS from 28/02/07, you would like them to compensate you for the mis-advice you received as when you were receing JSA and were unable to sign on due to being incapable of work, you were erroneously advised to claim IB and were not advised to claim IS, which you are now aware is what you should have claimed.

(I've typed this as if it's *you* because it's easier and I'm lazy)

lemontree

Incredible as it may seem, a letter arrived today to say that my son does not qualify for Incapacity Benefit and giving advice on how to claim Income Support!
Needless to say a detailed description of this catalogue of errors delivered by hand to Jobcentreplus

suelees1

Make sure you actually mention the fact that you want to appeal (do this in writing within the one month mentioned earlier). From what you say it sounds like you have good cause for this late IS claim. If I were you I'd try to obtain a backdated sick note on behalf of your son. If your GP will agree to give you one for a year then your son should start to get the disabilty premium in his IS straight away. I would also consider making a claim for DLA. You should get some expert advice so try https://www.clsdirect.org.uk for a specialist advisor in your area.

Eager_Elephant

Hi lemontree

Make sure you mention Official Error in the complaint - this always guarantees that a senior staff member will look into it more thoroughly.

I am agreeing with real1314, all JC+ staff are aware that if someone needs to claim IB they must send out IS forms just in case they have not got enough contributions.

They didn't use to do this and you were supposed to know yourself!!! but due to lots of complaints they changed how they worked.

EE

lemontree

I would like to thank all the people who gave me advise regarding a claim for my Son who is a recovering Alcoholic. Today he has been awarded 350 pounds back pay . May I thank you all on behalf of my Son and myself.:p