Not ill enough...

mum2one

To cut a long story short my father was recieving Attendance Allowance at low rate, for care needs he had Cancer in 2014..

We were told in Nov 2015 - that secondary cancer had been found, told 12/24 mths to live, then Feb this yr, they found stomach cancer, - terminal (although we knew that), but basically quashing the 12/24 mth expectancy into weeks.

April this yr we were told to apply for High Rate attendance allowance (due to the level of care he now needs), we were given D1500 (think right number), basically saying less than 6 mths to live.

As checking on the AA website - this form automatically upgrades the AA.

End of April - letter comes we can't give you higher rate...

Rang and asked why - he hasn't needed that level of care for 6 mths, when he has had 6 mths of care - reapply and we will see...

He could be dead within 6 weeks - never mind 6 mths - refered to there info.

...
Fast forward today.... they reconsidered - yes he is entitled to the AA.

Its a case of the left not knowing what the right hand is doing, its hard enough without having to do someones elses job...

Torry_Quine

That's just what you didn't need. Obviously someone didn't know the rules around claiming when terminal illness.

Diary

I rarely get into debate and will read but not reply to the negative comments I'll get for saying this but...

For me this post from mum2one just sums up perfectly the level of incompetance at the DWP.

pmduk

It also highlights the complexities of the rules and the inadequate training staff receive. I'd advise anyone else in the OP's awful situation to get advice from the McMillan Fund or one of the other cancer charities many of whom have specialist advisors to help in such situations.

missapril75

Diary wrote: »

I rarely get into debate and will read but not reply to the negative comments I'll get for saying this but...

For me this post from mum2one just sums up perfectly the level of incompetance at the DWP.

Apparently it does nothing more than show how wrong someone can be. That includes your comment as well as the DWP.

I was curious so I went hunting.

From Fraud and Error in the Benefits System 2013-14.

Pages 18 and 19 show the % of money overpaid and underpaid as a result of official error.

Of course it's not evidence of how many mistakes are made, just purely what led to the wrong payment. But maybe that's the most important part?

The worst one for underpaying is, perhaps unsurprisingly, ESA at 1.3%.

For overpaying, the worst is Pension Credit which doesn't even hit 2%

There doesn't seem a great deal of difference between under and over payments so it doesn't look as if you are more likely to be underpaid than overpaid.

Some time ago on this forum there were stats about the number of DWP sanctions overturned. Almost a third of the sanction decisions were challenged and half of them were reversed by the original DWP decision makers (probably with more time for 'proper' consideration and maybe new or more detailed information...or correcting an error themselves) and of those that went the distance, the appeal tribunals only overturned one in six.

Individual negative experiences are probably no more a reflection of service standards than the individual negative experiences of users of NHS, gas supply, Tesco, local greengrocer, baker etc would be.

It's just too easy to bash public service workers.

thorsoak

My OH was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer at the beginning of November 2010 - life expectancy less than 3 months. Immediately our Macmillan nurse helped me complete the application form for attendance allowance, which was sent off straight away. Received an acknowledgement that it would be dealt with as an urgent application. We heard nothing more from them until five days after OH died on 11th January 2011 when we received a letter advising that he was entitled to attendance allowance at highest rate. It took DSS over 9 weeks to process the application - yet when I phoned to inform them of his death, they were able to process the cancellation immediately.

We did express concern that this had taken so long and we received an apology and an assurance that they would tighten up the procedures on applications such as ours - it's sad to see that it doesn't seem to have happened.

missapril75

thorsoak wrote: »

...they would tighten up the procedures on applications such as ours - it's sad to see that it doesn't seem to have happened.

Clearance times 2015
New Claims - 11 weeks
Terminally Ill - 6 Days.

thorsoak

missapril75 wrote: »

Clearance times 2015
New Claims - 11 weeks
Terminally Ill - 6 Days.

..That was what we were told in 2010 :-( But sometimes they are having to handle "very urgent cases" ....which did not make us feel any better - were we not an "urgent case? :-(

missapril75

thorsoak wrote: »

.....( But sometimes they are having to handle "very urgent cases" ....which did not make us feel any better - were we not an "urgent case? :-(

That's a very poor show all round.
I'm just trying to make the point that with several hundred thousand claims received and decided - with something like one in twenty being under special rules and being cleared "on average" in 6 days, so some more some less - relying on a handful of failures as a guide to service levels is going to be unreliable.

mum2one

Just to update, dad has passed away today xx

cloudydays

I'm sorry for your loss mum2one.