Is there a DWP complaints procedure?

kuepper

Re this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4811242 I wrote to Jobcentreplus asking for the salient information eg what benefit was I on early April 1995 and how long had I been on it. Had no reply after 3 weeks so sent a reminder and another 3 weeks will soon have passed.

No point in wasting more time with them, whats best to do, do they have a complaints procedure and anyone used it?

Morglin

Have never used it, but here's the info:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

Lin

epitome

kuepper wrote: »

Re this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4811242 I wrote to Jobcentreplus asking for the salient information eg what benefit was I on early April 1995 and how long had I been on it. Had no reply after 3 weeks so sent a reminder and another 3 weeks will soon have passed.

No point in wasting more time with them, whats best to do, do they have a complaints procedure and anyone used it?

They tend to either ignore or lose letters like this.
Best way to get the info you require is to phone the benefit you think you were on and ask for a callback from that department and then ask them to send you a letter to confirm, unless the verbal confirmation would be enough. For your complaint to hold any water you would first have to show that your letters did arrive.

However having followed the link above and following the pages from that link it gives you a "contact - us" email address which would probably be a good way of getting the information you require.

sammyjammy

If that's the last time you claimed they probably won't be able to provide you with the information anyway.

missapril75

sammyjammy wrote: »

If that's the last time you claimed they probably won't be able to provide you with the information anyway.

Very likely.
Unless the claim was continuous, probably long since destroyed/wiped.

osdset

missapril75 wrote: »

Very likely.
Unless the claim was continuous, probably long since destroyed/wiped.

Hmm, how come the DWP are chasing people for supposedly unpaid social fund loans going back 10-15 years?

cattie

osdset wrote: »

Hmm, how come the DWP are chasing people for supposedly unpaid social fund loans going back 10-15 years?

Because the money for the loans is paid out of the taxpayers money & that they are loans, not a free handout.

Any such loans not repaid by the time a person retires will be stopped out of their state pensions. The debt is never written off, as some people seem to think.

missapril75

osdset wrote: »

Hmm, how come the DWP are chasing people for supposedly unpaid social fund loans going back 10-15 years?

Because there is ongoing action. If they pay benefit to someone entitled to it and then the claim ends, after a period of no action the records are no longer kept. Unless there's something ongoing there's no reason to keep records.

If they loan money that is repayable but the person then fails to repay it, there is ongoing action and a reason to maintain the records.

von

Why would you expect the DWP to still have a record of this information from 18 years ago? The benefit was paid to you so why didn't keep a record?

xylophone

Aren't you doing this to death? https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4811242

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63026169#Comment_63026169

midnight_express

Flogging a dead horse ?