Letter of entitlement

Mellow69

I need to get a letter of entitlement from the benefits office to accompany my credit/DBS check. I have been in touch with the benefits office who inform me the information I require from 2011 is too old and they no longer have it in their archive. The letter is to prove my entitlement to JSA claim made in 2011. I need this letter to pass the verification requirements for a job. I have re-contacted the benefits office and Experian who are carrying out the checks. Experian have stated this happens sometimes and you need to keep on at the benefits office.
Has anyone else experienced this and if so how did you resolve the issue?

TELLIT01

Information from claims has to be held for either 6 or 7 years so DWP should still have it in their archive. It is entirely possible that it has been misfiled and that does mean it will never see the light of day again.
If you have any evidence of being on JSA in 2011 the benefit office should be able to confirm the fact. The benefit IT systems do get purged of old data from time to time so it is possible that your claim no long shows on the JSA payment system.

Diary

If you issue a SAR they will have to send everything they hold on you but if time is of the essence then might not be the route to go down.
You will then see if you were being fobbed off or not.

kingfisherblue

I've no idea whether this might help, but would bank statements showing the benefit payments be of any use? I know they don't show entitlement, but they would show that you received the money and would be labeled JSA at the end of the reference number.

Mellow69

Bank statements would be useful but I do not think I have them going back to 2011.
SAR record request would take too long I need to get the info within the next two weeks.
I spoke to the benefits office on the phone and also have a saved message from them stating they do not have the information. So today I am going to physically go to the local office which is where the claim was made and ask them for the details. Hopefully they will sort something out.

NYM

Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) claim papers are usually retained for 14 months from the claim closure date. When a claim to Housing Benefit (HB) or Council Tax benefit (CTB) is made alongside a claim to JSA, the claim documents are stored for 14 months following the claim closure or 6 years from the date of claim whichever is the greater. This retention period relates to JSA claimants who have claimed HB/CTB alongside their JSA.

DWP have agreed to retain such records for 6 years as we are effectively holding this information on the Local Authorities behalf, and most Local Authorities retain their HB/CTB records for that period of time

I found this from a FOI request someone made...FOI Request


*edit* I wonder if that is only for the actual paper records?