Fed up with DWP losing your post?

epitome

Your first action will need to be sending with "Signed for delivery" otherwise called Recorded Delivery, should cost about £1.60 extra.

Confirm through Royal Mail it was delivered to the nominated DWP office. Then Phone to see if the DWP receives it. If they say it has not been found then tell them you wish to make a complaint & recieve a callback from a team leader to confirm the complaint has been taken and that you expect a written response to the complaint after an investigation has taken place.

Then, if they still can't find your documents, complain to the Information Commisioners Office. (ICO)

From the ICO:
"The Data Protection Act 1998 applies to both electronic and manual personal data (paper documents). Further to this the unauthorised loss of personal data calls into question the adequacy of security measures in place at an organisation."

If enough people complain maybe something will get done.

The reply below this is wrong... see my reply in #6 below.

TELLIT01

There is one huge flaw in the suggestion above. NO post is delivered direct to the Benefit Centre or JobCentre. It is all sent to one of two central distribution offices in the West Midlands. Any item requiring signing for is signed for in those offices and although that will prove that it has been delivered somewhere in the DWP system it is absolutely no guarantee that it has reached, or will reach its final destination.
If it is critical that an item reached the processing centre the only way to be certain is to make an appointment at your local JobCentre for them to copy and scan to the relevant office. They'll hate you doing it and will often refuse to cooperate if you don't have an appointment, but I would strongly suggest hanging on to your money and don't waste it on sending items Recorded Delivery. It can cost a lot more than £1.60, I've seen items with postal costs in excess of £6.

tomtom256

I was under the impression it's the Royal Mail that opens and sorts the DWP's post anyway.

[Deleted User]

A dwp dm told me this year not to use signed for delivery,the reason being most of it goes from one office to another before it finds the right body and at each stage it has to be signed for causing long delays

anmarj

And then it goes for scanning............:D

epitome

You are wrong, The DWP has a nominated office address in Wolverhampton, the DWP is responsible for ensuring your data is secure even if that is an indirect responsibility. Recorded Delivery costs about £1.60, Special Delivery and Next Day Delivery cost much more about £6. There is no need to pay for the expensive deliveries, Recorded Delivery £1.60 will be proof that it was delivered.

Royal Mail stopped doing DWP post last year, now it is handled by someone else and sent on by a courier firm, but all are accountable to the DWP, and the DWP is accountable to you and the ICO.

dori2o

epitome wrote: »

You are wrong, The DWP has a nominated office address in Wolverhampton, the DWP is responsible for ensuring your data is secure even if that is an indirect responsibility. Recorded Delivery costs about £1.60, Special Delivery and Next Day Delivery cost much more about £6. There is no need to pay for the expensive deliveries, Recorded Delivery £1.60 will be proof that it was delivered.

Royal Mail stopped doing DWP post last year, now it is handled by someone else and sent on by a courier firm, but all are accountable to the DWP, and the DWP is accountable to you and the ICO.

It's exactly the same process that HMRC have.

ALL recorded/signed for post is bulk signed, i.e. one signature for thousands of signed for pieces of post.

ALL non DLA/AA DWP post goes to 1 mail centre in Wolverhampton. You could address the post to your local Jobcentre and it will still go to Wolverhampton.

The only exception to this is DLA/AA post which is directed via Warbreck in Blackpool which deals with existing DLA clams and the regional benefits centres in Bootle, Bristol, Leeds, Cardiff Wolverhampton and Glasgow which deal with any new DLA claims, and in the case of Wolverhampton child DLA claims.

Recorded Delivery post costs £1.10 more than standard post and standard delivery costs are relative to the weight and size of the parcel/letter you are sending, so for a standard letter which meets the minimum weight//size then 1st class recorded delivery is £1.72, a 1st class stamp is 62p plus the £1.10 charge for the signed for service.

When I sent my last DLA claim form in it cost me almost £4 recorded due to the size of the envelope I sent it in and the weight of it.

Diary

epitome wrote: »

Your first action will need to be sending with "Signed for delivery" otherwise called Recorded Delivery, should cost about £1.60 extra.

Confirm through Royal Mail it was delivered to the nominated DWP office. Then Phone to see if the DWP receives it. If they say it has not been found then tell them you wish to make a complaint & recieve a callback from a team leader to confirm the complaint has been taken and that you expect a written response to the complaint after an investigation has taken place.

Then, if they still can't find your documents, complain to the Information Commisioners Office. (ICO)

From the ICO:
"The Data Protection Act 1998 applies to both electronic and manual personal data (paper documents). Further to this the unauthorised loss of personal data calls into question the adequacy of security measures in place at an organisation."


If enough people complain maybe something will get done.

The reply below this is wrong... see my reply in #6 below.

This is a great post , I have used this method recently. A SAR I submitted to DWP was signed for but aparently went missing.The SAR was important as I needed a copy of my PIP ATOS assessment for MR, in the end I had to submit the MR without the ATOS report but that's a whole other post.

The SAR was found very quickly after I complained to DWP and then complained to the ICO, I should add I also added my MP in very visually to my complaints, i.e. I typed 'c.c. MP for....' at the bottom.

missapril75

Diary wrote: »

The SAR was found very quickly after I complained to DWP and then complained to the ICO, I should add I also added my MP in very visually to my complaints, i.e. I typed 'c.c. MP for....' at the bottom.

Probably they acted as a result of MP contact. That always gets priority.

TELLIT01

tomtom256 wrote: »

I was under the impression it's the Royal Mail that opens and sorts the DWP's post anyway.

It used to be. Royal Mail declined to renew their contract and it has been done by a private company for best part of a year now.

epitome

TELLIT01 wrote: »

There is one huge flaw in the suggestion above. NO post is delivered direct to the Benefit Centre or JobCentre. It is all sent to one of two central distribution offices in the West Midlands. Any item requiring signing for is signed for in those offices and although that will prove that it has been delivered somewhere in the DWP system it is absolutely no guarantee that it has reached, or will reach its final destination..

You completely miss the point. DWP lose an unacceptable amount of post. Nothing can be done about that unless you can prove that it was delivered to the nominated address. And nothing will be done until a lot more people send recorded delivery and make a lot of noise to the ICO when the DWP say they can't find it.

The DWP has a responsibilty under the DPA 1998 not to lose your documents.