State Pension - please help **Update again**

saver861

hec2308 wrote: »

I will certainly be doing a written complaint if I don't hear in 48 hours as promised. I have emailed the MP again, think I've officially had enough of it all.

Try to find out if he has a surgery and get to him in person. Letters etc are automated and thus the letter to your grandmother but clearly this is looking like the mother or grandmother of all cockups!!

It will take a little while to untangle all of this, on top of dealing with such cumbersome depts.

Obviously priority is still to get your Grandfather comfortable at home and then deal with the unbelievable incompetence ongoing.

It truly does beggar belief.

hec2308

We received a call back within 48 hours to the HMRC complaint which was raised as a result of the latest letter going to my grandmother acknowledging my grandfather's death. They offered a reluctant apology (blamed another department) and a payment of £50. My grandmother really just wanted the apology and turned down the money, no matter how shocking I thought it was as far as apologies go...

The 15 working day timescale for my DWP complaint ended last week. I chased them yesterday, and today a Complaints Resolution Manager called me back to say that it is totally their fault, an investigation was in fact raised in early 2014 in response to the "Dead Letter" and they confirmed internally that my grandfather was in fact alive and at the same residence as he's always been. Except nobody took any action...

So I am very happy that my grandmother will be receiving a formal letter of apology and a proper response through her MP also. The department that the CR Manager called from is only authorised to issue a compensation payment of £100 and we both agreed right off the bat that this would be nowhere near enough, so the case has now been referred to a department in Newcastle where they will decide what amount is appropriate. We shall see whether it is or not...

This payment decision will take another couple of weeks, but as this has been going on for nearly two months now (since we discovered the problem anyway...) what is another couple of weeks in the grand scheme of things.

So other than that, my grandfather is still in hospital. We're trying to get him out, we have had a hospital bed and all sorts of equipment delivered so the room is ready and waiting, just got to get his care package finalised (£500 a week as the current quote stands :eek: )

The end appears to be in sight *touch wood*, so I just wanted to come back with an update and say thank you very much to everyone who provided such valuable advice and assistance with this. It really helped, even just to confirm that I wasn't going nuts and this was completely bonkers.

badmemory

Thanks for coming back and letting us know. Very pleased to hear that you are approaching a resolution.

saver861

Yes, same here, thanks for coming back to update. Very pleased its nearing an end. Certainly a most bizarre situation which I suspected all along that it was something left in someones in-tray that never got any further.