DWP is it just the real world that shakes our head at Public Sector.

superbigal36

So my mother in law unfortunately passes away.
The DWP are informed timeously.
Now don't get me wrong I can then fully see what develops and have no problem with the following facts.
Pension Credit of £xx is paid weekly and has resulted in a slight overpayment.
Retirement Pension in this case appears to be paid 4 weekly and has thus resulted in an underpayment.
The money DWP is due the estate exceeds the money the estate is due DWP.

So what happens ?
2 Letters arrive side by side and both headed "Department of Work & Pensions"
1 letter demanding repayment and the second letter inviting an 8 page form to be filled in to get the underpayment paid.

Why in this day and age can the DWP (Of course they dress it up as "it's another department sorry") not cut out all this complete bulllshittt, and not set the overpayment against the underpayment.

When will the public sector join the real world and not create more hassle for it's customers.
Shambles of a company.

danielanthony

Its not a company is it? If it were, you'd be free to take your business elsewhere.

Its a government department, badly run like so many. There's a whole debate on large vs small state interference...

Alice_Walker

Far from perfect but has provided the MIL with an income for some years. Not so bad when you think about it that way.

sammyjammy

Do you have any comprehension of how much money it would cost to have a computer system that served all the benefits and pensions DWP administers? Don't sweat the small stuff, it will sort itself out.

thorsoak

Took the DWP over FOUR MONTHS to work out exactly what my pension was to be after my OH died. My pension (in my own right) was stopped, obviously his pension stopped - so I was left with no idea with what my income would be - (I thought it would be my own pension) so for four months my income consisted of my small (less that £200 per month) private pension and various odd amounts that would suddenly appear in my account marked DWP, and either my NI no or my OH's NI no as the reference. After four months, I received notification that I would receive my state pension as before less an amount that I would receive in respect of my OH's graduated contributions from goodness knows when - in other words - £12 per month more than I received previously. Any time I would try to contact them to find out when I would know what I would receive - in order to budget properly - I would be told "but we are dealing with urgent cases". I didn't want special treatment, but it was very upsetting to be told that I wasn't worth being treated urgently - felt that I wasn't important to anyone :-( Had hoped that they'd sorted things out by now.

TELLIT01

DWP and other government systems generally don't talk to each other, any more than the departments do! The intent behind Universal Credit was to bring all benefits under a single system, and we all know how well that's going.

superbigal36

sammyjammy wrote: »

Do you have any comprehension of how much money it would cost to have a computer system that served all the benefits and pensions DWP administers? Don't sweat the small stuff, it will sort itself out.

Yet when I take up the task of phoning recovery unit, they will not (or cannot) do anything.
They can however clearly see easily on their computer that overall the figure is in favour of owed to the estate. So no problem accessing the info just can't do diddly squat.

I do request it to be noted I have called and said overpayment will be cleared when the underpayment has been cleared.
I could almost hear him exclaim touche

tomtom256

Discussion time.

I understand your pain, you should try working for them.

Darksparkle

tomtom256 wrote: »

you should try working for them.

I wish everyone could. Just for a one day to understand how difficult it is to try helping people when working with flawed systems but it's always your fault so you are the one being called every name under the sun and receiving death threats.

konark

The DWP are informed timeously.

That's not even a word!

DWP have a captive market so treat people like a nuisance..... same as airports.

xylophone

That's not even a word!

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/timeously

Adverb[edit]
timeously ‎(comparative more timeously, superlative most timeously)

(Scotland and South Africa) In a timely manner. "

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/timeous