farce of a benefits system, need help.

wossie

Long story short, 3 kids aged 3-11.Wife terminal cancer, given 3 months to live last Oct. Myself was made redundant Oct. With the situation, it was decided that, finding another job, was really out of the question.
Due to pilon could not put in a claim for I/S before Dec 4. Wife already receives DLA.
Story carries on, made claim for I/S and carers allowance on this date, firstly our local jobcentre would not accept the form, had to post it off. Then we waited for payment, nothing came, many phonecalls made , to be fobbed off, ie wrong bank account number, or other excuses. Fast forward to March. We found out that our claim had gone to compliance, someone nasty in the family, we believe, had wrote in annomously that I was working a delivery driver. How, I don't know, I myself was in hospital with a very bad and serious pulinary embolisism. Out come was that we were being watched by compliance. Then a week or so later,still not paid, compliance held back payment, for the reason that a few times they could not account for times I went out in the car, what a joke.
Then again due to be paid again, found out that we did not put an adult or another bank account on the form. We had printed the form out at home, the printer crashed out, so had to reprint, had well over 100 pages to deal with, naturally with all that was going on at the time, things got missed. But compliance never mentioned anything, (delay tactic) ?
Got a statement from this adult who is my step daughter. sent off to jobcentre, again was due to be paid last weekend. nothing again, another phonecall , to be told again claim gon to compliance on Wednesday, for the reason that again they received information, about my step son who has not lived here for a year and a half. This was sorted out yesterday, so now we are dealing again with I/s. We have just demanded a fep payment, where up until now are refusing because we have money coming in.
This has been going on now for 4 months, the dwp have as we told them have taken away time spent with the kids, making happy memories , over the school holidays , been stuck in the house, as it is now we do not know how much time my wife has got left, she is going into hospital on Tuesday , for tests and scans.This has been the third time also that the hospital has made arrangements then cancelled, so as you can imagine, we just don't need more stress, I have debr companies chasing me for money, I pay a token payment of a pound to them, cant give what they want as we have yet to receive a letter from I/s with proof of what we are getting. But as far as we know what we are owed is over 12k now. Its quite funny that, the dwp / compliance say its a lot of money, yrs it is because you have withheld this for so long.
We have already made a complaint to the I.C.E, but unaware at that time we were in compliance. Also I emailed our local MP about a fortnight ago, still waiting a response .
So what can we do now ? We have lost all trust in this, we find it hard to believe anything we are being told now.

dibdabable

I don't know what to say, i can't really offer you any advise but I just didn't want you thinking no one cared. I really hope someone will come along soon and give you some proper advice. I am really sorry for your situation and I hope you get it sorted soon, so you can spend more quality time with your wife.

Personally I'd be inclined to call the Compliance Team and tell them you want an interview and take any evidence you have that can prove your situation, phone calls just seem to get people no where. Always ask for epeople's names too.Good Luck.

sfm82

wossie wrote: »

Long story short, 3 kids aged 3-11.Wife terminal cancer, given 3 months to live last Oct. Myself was made redundant Oct. With the situation, it was decided that, finding another job, was really out of the question.

Due to pilon could not put in a claim for I/S before Dec 4. Wife already receives DLA.

Story carries on, made claim for I/S and carers allowance on this date, firstly our local jobcentre would not accept the form, had to post it off. Then we waited for payment, nothing came, many phonecalls made , to be fobbed off, ie wrong bank account number, or other excuses.

Fast forward to March. We found out that our claim had gone to compliance, someone nasty in the family, we believe, had wrote in annomously that I was working a delivery driver. How, I don't know, I myself was in hospital with a very bad and serious pulinary embolisism.

Out come was that we were being watched by compliance. Then a week or so later,still not paid, compliance held back payment, for the reason that a few times they could not account for times I went out in the car, what a joke.

Then again due to be paid again, found out that we did not put an adult or another bank account on the form. We had printed the form out at home, the printer crashed out, so had to reprint, had well over 100 pages to deal with, naturally with all that was going on at the time, things got missed. But compliance never mentioned anything, (delay tactic) ?

Got a statement from this adult who is my step daughter. sent off to jobcentre, again was due to be paid last weekend. nothing again, another phonecall , to be told again claim gon to compliance on Wednesday, for the reason that again they received information, about my step son who has not lived here for a year and a half. This was sorted out yesterday, so now we are dealing again with I/s.

We have just demanded a fep payment, where up until now are refusing because we have money coming in.

This has been going on now for 4 months, the dwp have as we told them have taken away time spent with the kids, making happy memories , over the school holidays , been stuck in the house, as it is now we do not know how much time my wife has got left, she is going into hospital on Tuesday , for tests and scans.

This has been the third time also that the hospital has made arrangements then cancelled, so as you can imagine, we just don't need more stress, I have debr companies chasing me for money, I pay a token payment of a pound to them, cant give what they want as we have yet to receive a letter from I/s with proof of what we are getting. But as far as we know what we are owed is over 12k now. Its quite funny that, the dwp / compliance say its a lot of money, yrs it is because you have withheld this for so long.

We have already made a complaint to the I.C.E, but unaware at that time we were in compliance. Also I emailed our local MP about a fortnight ago, still waiting a response .

So what can we do now ? We have lost all trust in this, we find it hard to believe anything we are being told now.

I have formatted your post so it's easier to read and you may get more replies.

wossie

An update, although heard it all before many times, payment will be next Wednesday / Thursday.
Just got to the point where we started to believe the dwp were doing all they can to hold payments back, due to the anon. letter sent in. Why people have to be vindictive and send these letters in , I don't know.
Thanks to those who did reply.

wossie

dibdabable wrote: »

I don't know what to say, i can't really offer you any advise but I just didn't want you thinking no one cared. I really hope someone will come along soon and give you some proper advice. I am really sorry for your situation and I hope you get it sorted soon, so you can spend more quality time with your wife.

Personally I'd be inclined to call the Compliance Team and tell them you want an interview and take any evidence you have that can prove your situation, phone calls just seem to get people no where. Always ask for epeople's names too.Good Luck.

The general public do not have access to the telephone number of compliance, you have to wait for them to contact you, yes we did ask to be interviewed when this came out, compliance said it was not needed. Also with getting names, we were given one, but others, well , seems they do not like to give their names.

mikey_bach

wossie wrote: »

Long story short, 3 kids aged 3-11.Wife terminal cancer, given 3 months to live last Oct. Myself was made redundant Oct. With the situation, it was decided that, finding another job, was really out of the question.
Due to pilon


Who told you this, its not true PILON is treated as capital now, if you had under 16k you can claim


could not put in a claim for I/S before Dec 4. Wife already receives DLA.


Did you claim CA to align with your wifes DLA, ????????


Story carries on, made claim for I/S and carers allowance on this date, firstly our local jobcentre would not accept the form, had to post it off.


You can make the claim over the phone, but your date of claim will be the date you contacted the office for a form


Then we waited for payment, nothing came, many phonecalls made , to be fobbed off, ie wrong bank account number, or oth
er excuses.
Shocking, straight forward claim CA and DLA
Fast forward to March. We found out that our claim had gone to compliance, someone nasty in the family, we believe, had wrote in annomously that I was working a delivery driver. How, I don't know, I myself was in hospital with a very bad and serious pulinary embolisism. Out come was that we were being watched by compliance. Then a week or so later,still not paid, compliance held back payment, for the reason that a few times they could not account for times I went out in the car, what a joke.
Never heard of this before, usually a claim has to be in payment before compliance get involved,, in a case like this, suspected work


Then again due to be paid again, found out that we did not put an adult or another bank account on the form. We had printed the form out at home, the printer crashed out, so had to reprint, had well over 100 pages to deal with, naturally with all that was going on at the time, things got missed. But compliance never mentioned anything, (delay tactic) ?


The form is twenty page long at the most
Got a statement from this adult who is my step daughter. sent off to jobcentre, again was due to be paid last weekend. nothing again, another phonecall , to be told again claim gon to compliance on Wednesday, for the reason that again they received information, about my step son who has not lived here for a year and a half. This was sorted out yesterday, so now we are dealing again with I/s. We have just demanded a fep payment, where up until now are refusing because we have money coming in.


If you are due money you get paid it
This has been going on now for 4 months, the dwp have as we told them have taken away time spent with the kids, making happy memories , over the school holidays , been stuck in the house, as it is now we do not know how much time my wife has got left, she is going into hospital on Tuesday , for tests and scans.This has been the third time also that the hospital has made arrangements then cancelled, so as you can imagine, we just don't need more stress, I have debr companies chasing me for money, I pay a token payment of a pound to them, cant give what they want as we have yet to receive a letter from I/s with proof of what we are getting. But as far as we know what we are owed is over 12k now. Its quite funny that, the dwp / compliance say its a lot of money, yrs it is because you have withheld this for so long.
We have already made a complaint to the I.C.E, but unaware at that time we were in compliance. Also I emailed our local MP about a fortnight ago, still waiting a response .
So what can we do now ? We have lost all trust in this, we find it hard to believe anything we are being told now.

Think something is so wrong, you dont need this stress, I
think you need to make a complaint in writing and copy in your MP
I dont know why they needed to know about the stepson, unless you have a mortgage.
When you left work, where you working for an Employer, or was it your own business , am at a loss to whats gone wrong here

jetplane

Have you contacted macmillan they have welfare rights to do this for you, they can also access grants to help you, and I would ask them to take the case straight to your MP.

wossie

Thanks for replies, I will answer your comments.

Pilon as far as I was aware even though was made redundant I still was getting a wage, I was paid 6 weeks notice, totally unaware that I could make any claim even for jsa.

my wife has been claiming dla now for a while. we looked into ca but from the rules ie earning more than £100 a week, so this was out of the question.

Compliance, we were told by the dwp that this letter came into them before they received our claim form for is. Even though it was posted on or around the 4th dec , when we contacted them later after not receiving no communication from them, we were told that our claim form had been lost, and we were due to go into the office between xmas and new year, this did not happen as the claim form suddenly appeared. Waited again for communication or payment, again nothing told were having problems ,ie they missed a digit from my bank account.All excuses until the 7 th march, which is when we were told being watched and under compliance.Asked why they did not pay us at all, answer was if we found you were working then we got the problem of re claiming the money back.

The is claim form when printed off the website is 74 pages in fact. not 20.

Yes I do have a mortgage and yes I did work for an employer.

Yes we did have a McMillian benefits advisor, she was the one who told us what we could claim for and when.
We also found out by a welfare rights worker that we were able to claim a top up also that we were unaware of.
Our marriage certificate had to be sent off, this we are still waiting to be returned, it has been explained many time that we need this back, for reasons of my wife passing away.

Yes I did contact our MP , and received comfirmation back that she is dealing with it.

mikey_bach

wossie wrote: »

Thanks for replies, I will answer your comments.

Pilon as far as I was aware even though was made redundant I still was getting a wage, I was paid 6 weeks notice, totally unaware that I could make any claim even for jsa.


PILON is usually paid in lieu of notice, for I.S purposes you can make a claim from the date after you finished work, https://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/dmgch26.pdf
I have checked the DMG for you so you could ask for CA and IS from this date


my wife has been claiming dla now for a while. we looked into ca but from the rules ie earning more than £100 a week, so this was out of the question.


This is correct

Compliance, we were told by the dwp that this letter came into them before they received our claim form for is. Even though it was posted on or around the 4th dec , when we contacted them later after not receiving no communication from them, we were told that our claim form had been lost, and we were due to go into the office between xmas and new year, this did not happen as the claim form suddenly appeared. Waited again for communication or payment, again nothing told were having problems ,ie they missed a digit from my bank account.All excuses until the 7 th march, which is when we were told being watched and under compliance.Asked why they did not pay us at all, answer was if we found you were working then we got the problem of re claiming the money back.


This is awful, I have never honestly heard of this before, who would write to them did you leave your employment under a cloud,

The is claim form when printed off the website is 74 pages in fact. not 20.
Sorry, a paper form is about twenty, online one yes massive

Yes I do have a mortgage and yes I did work for an employer.
I can understand now about your stepson


Yes we did have a McMillian benefits advisor, she was the one who told us what we could claim for and when.
We also found out by a welfare rights worker that we were able to claim a top up also that we were unaware of.
Our marriage certificate had to be sent off, this we are still waiting to be returned, it has been explained many time that we need this back, for reasons of my wife passing away.


You will then be entitled to Benefits in your name they need to see the certificate for these but they should send it straight back after copying.

Yes I did contact our MP , and received comfirmation back that she is dealing with it.

words fail me to be honest, it must be a nightmare and at a time when you dont need it

I think you need to make an appointment to see this MP with full details of your case
Have you made an official complaint to your BDC, they do take them serious,

Who would wish to hurt your family so much be writing to the Dept, and
how would that person know you are finishing work and making a claim??

Have you provided them with final wage slips etc, even if they had written to your ex employer and if he had said you were still working then they would have just niled your claim not sent it to compliance...

wossie

Well we believe who wrote the letter is close to home, thought about someone at work, but delivery driver is too specific. Also had a random conversation about this to someone, about self employed catalogue delivery drivers and how much they got per drop, therefore we believe word had carried on to someone else.
We did write to the independent case examiner about this, but I must admit it was before we knew what was going on.
Yes and that is the question we want answered .. How would they know you are finishing work and making a claim?? Families eh who needs them.

epitome

Who told you this, its not true PILON is treated as capital now, if you had under 16k you can claim

Are you sure it does not depend on the the end date of employment?
If still employed (P45 end date not yet reached) PILON treated as wages,
If employment has ended (P45 end date) PILON treated as capital.

Too late now OP, but I advise anyone thinking of claiming JSA or IS or ESA to do it over the phone, much quicker, and no mistakes that can't be quickly rectified.