Appealing a Non-Decision?

dippy3103

Why have they not made a decision? Are they making further enquiries? Did you supply everything they have asked for- could be worth checking if a letter from them has gone astray. Might be the final piece in the jigsaw.

If there is no actual decision then there is nothing to appeal.

It more grounds for a complaint regarding delays. You refer to a call centre- does this mean the benefit service has been outsourced for this your council? I would suggest you complain to the council head of service overseeing the contract (if it is contracted out) about the delays. Usually they have a service standard setting out how long they have to respond to your complaint. You will probably find the complaints procedure set out on their website.

Owen_Kric

dippy3103 wrote: »

Why have they not made a decision? Are they making further enquiries? Did you supply everything they have asked for- could be worth checking if a letter from them has gone astray. Might be the final piece in the jigsaw.

If there is no actual decision then there is nothing to appeal.

It more grounds for a complaint regarding delays. You refer to a call centre- does this mean the benefit service has been outsourced for this your council? I would suggest you complain to the council head of service overseeing the contract (if it is contracted out) about the delays. Usually they have a service standard setting out how long they have to respond to your complaint. You will probably find the complaints procedure set out on their website.

Another site suggested I send a formal letter of complaint (about the delay) which they must act on. I will do this. Oh! There is everything to appeal - I have been put through 3 months of absolute hell on account of pure bureaucratic incompetence and intend getting to the bottom of this, if only 'in the public interest', which I feel it is.

Call centre I have no idea - when they read you the riot act the telephonists call themselves the Council. When you have a grievance the telephonists insist that they are only a call centre and the Council are some discarnate entity at the other end of an email chain. They have it both ways, they have it all ways, you are left with a nervous tick at the other end of the line.

elmer

Our "call centre" is actually all those people in the local offices who are not dealing with customers face to face. But if you ask where the call centre is, we are not supposed to say as the council wants to give the impression that we have one.
However our benefits team all work from home and are not on site to ask advice on what seems a complicated case like yours, so we have to email them for assistance and wait for the reply
hope you get a resolution soon

elmer

dippy3103

Owen_Kric wrote: »

Another site suggested I send a formal letter of complaint (about the delay) which they must act on. I will do this. Oh! There is everything to appeal - I have been put through 3 months of absolute hell on account of pure bureaucratic incompetence and intend getting to the bottom of this, if only 'in the public interest', which I feel it is.

Call centre I have no idea - when they read you the riot act the telephonists call themselves the Council. When you have a grievance the telephonists insist that they are only a call centre and the Council are some discarnate entity at the other end of an email chain. They have it both ways, they have it all ways, you are left with a nervous tick at the other end of the line.

I mean in benefit terms- you can't appeal a decision that hasn't been made. You have been poorly advised by CAB in my opinion


i'm wondering if your case has been sent to a tribunal appealing the original disallowance. That can take months.

However they should be explaining where your case is & what the delays.

I think you should complain and ask as part of that complaint to explain what's going on. I can think of several potential scenarios but all would be pure supposition on my part & therefore not helpful!!

Owen_Kric

Thanks.

dippy3103 wrote: »

I mean in benefit terms- you can't appeal a decision that hasn't been made. You have been poorly advised by CAB in my opinion


i'm wondering if your case has been sent to a tribunal appealing the original disallowance. That can take months.

However they should be explaining where your case is & what the delays.

I think you should complain and ask as part of that complaint to explain what's going on. I can think of several potential scenarios but all would be pure supposition on my part & therefore not helpful!!

What's going on - is a good question. Well, the fact you don't know and I don't know says it all - 3 months after all my support was "stopped" as the anonymous Benefits Manager put it. My rent was cut before the letter even reached me, I had no chance to appeal or argue my case, they simply pulled the trigger on my support and invited the hapless claimant to ask questions after the event. There was no warning, nothing. I think this is a brutal and inhuman action with regard to a system that calls itself "benefits".

If the council is dilly-dallying between various 'teams' and various stages of appeal over my case it concerns a man who is now in theory 3 months behind on his rent with a court summons staring at him for non-payment of Council Tax.

And with respect, no - I was told twice that I would hear 'after a month' of my appeal (end of May) in writing. I was told this face-to-face at the benefit office, and haughtily over the phone when I enquired on the progress of my appeal two weeks later. I asked why a month, such a long time to wait when you are expecting a landlord to send round the bailiffs for non-payment of rent? I was told over the phone that the month 'rule' had been set by Central Government. I don't believe that, I asked for a reference for that statement and was given none.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

They could be treating your appeal as a reconsideration/review of their original decision rather than take it through the formal appeal procedure.

I would email the Leader of your Local Council explaining what has happened, that you are now in severe financial hardship and could be facing imminent eviction all because his Housing Benefit Department has misinterpreted the rules and you still have had no response. If you are made homeless through no fault of your own you will end up costing the Council more being rehomed as a homeless person.

Inquiries via Councillors are normally responded to within days and won't join the queue with all the other correspondence. Inquiries from Councillors are normally given to a manager to deal with so this should expedite your claim being dealt with.

Owen_Kric

elmer wrote: »

...if you ask where the call centre is, we are not supposed to say...

Thank you. This must I feel stop: if local government is directing its employees to be evasive with the public it demonstrates just how far down the slippery path to George Orwell's '1984' we have now descended. The public should expect & demand transparency and public accountability from civil servants and those in the public sector, and that includes signing names to letters, not just 'per pro' - there is no law that stipulates civil servants shall remain anonymous. If there were less bureaucratic anonymity there would be far less letters sent out irresponsibly before all the facts were thoroughly sifted and the correct decisions arrived at. The system must change, only public pressure will bring this about I think.

dippy3103

Sound advice from HBO (as always) - you need to know where you stand before you can possibly deal with the situation.

How did the pension come to light? Was it something they were previously aware of & set a diary date to deal with?

Owen_Kric

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

They could be treating your appeal as a reconsideration/review of their original decision rather than take it through the formal appeal procedure.

I would email the Leader of your Local Council explaining what has happened, that you are now in severe financial hardship and could be facing imminent eviction all because his Housing Benefit Department has misinterpreted the rules and you still have had no response. If you are made homeless through no fault of your own you will end up costing the Council more being rehomed as a homeless person.

Inquiries via Councillors are normally responded to within days and won't join the queue with all the other correspondence. Inquiries from Councillors are normally given to a manager to deal with so this should expedite your claim being dealt with.

Thank you. Unfortunately, the example of a certain London borough beginning with the letter 'W' suggests that councils are perfectly prepared to make people homeless and put them up in hotels at the tax payers' expense. Common sense does not seem to prevail at this level of local government.

Your suggestion to contact a councillor is sound but as I have now moved from the borough which has been making my life a perfect misery for 3 months I wonder if my petition might find itself slid to the bottom of the pile?

Notwithstanding, I have been proactive and submitted a formal complaint to the council in question which I understand they must respond to. This should also hopefully highlight my overdue appeal which was lodged in late May and followed up with all relevant documentation in early June. At this point I was told by a Benefits Officer that a revised decision would be made known to me in one month's time. This message was repeated to me over the phone when I enquired after the progress of my appeal two weeks later. It is now over two months since the council has been in touch with me, and they have replied to none of my letters. Hence my formal complaint in writing.

Some guidance on the complaints procedure would be helpful please. I understand there are 3 stages - if the first and second responses are unsatisfactory?

Yesterday, I received an email from the Council Tax Office (same building as the HB Office) informing me that the case against me had been dropped. However, there was no explanation, and there was no apology. I might like to pursue this at a later stage. Currently though, I still have a live HB appeal which has not been addressed - by anyone - and the revised decision over it is now overdue in excess of one month.

I will now thank everyone for their helpful suggestions.

:A

dippy3103

The complaints policy where I work is stage 1 (handled by the head of service of the service which you are complaining about) and stage 2, which is another HOS or even the CEO. Redress after that is the LG Ombudsman.

It may vary for the borough you are dealing with.


Try contacting your MP- MP letters are usually dealt with promptly