Interesting phone call to the DWP about my Tribunal win

Iwanttobefree

I was advised to contact the DWP to check they had had the tribunal decision sent to them.

I'm not the best with phones, but went for it anyway.

On hold for 50 mins, finally get through, they ask me what my NI number is, I tell them the first two letters then they cut me off.

I redial, another 50 odd min wait, and a very helpful and pleasant lady answers.

My short term memory isn't very good when I'm stressed, i cant remember the exact conversation, but it went something like this.

She said that they had received the tribunal decision somewhere (said words to the effect that it wasn't showing up properly on her system).

She then explained that they now have a specialised team dealing with tribunal wins, trying to cut the delay on back payments from 6+ weeks to two to three weeks.

Then she asked me what benefits I was receiving and I told her PiP.

She then said words along the lines of "you weren't receiving any other benefit last year?"

and I told her that while awaiting my first Tribunal, they paid me the basic rate ESA., but that Tribunal was Feb last year and apart from PiP which only started this year, I haven't received anything.

She then asked me to hold while she spoke to her manager.

She came back and said words along the lines of, I'm emailing the specialist team who deal with these to get it sorted. They will phone you up in the next 3 working days to discuss it.

If you see missed calls from an 0800 or private caller, it will probably be them, if you miss them 3 times, you need to phone us back up and arrange a time they can get hold of you (fair enough, I will be in anyway).

I asked as they had my bank details, my history, my PiP payments etc, why they needed to phone me, she replied something like

"They need to discuss with you how you've managed to cope with zero income over the previous year" to which I replied "I've been surviving on my wife's earnings and help from relatives."

She said she will write that on my file.

The conversation seemed very odd to me. Ah well, that was on Thursday, so they should be phoning me up Mon or Tue (who wants to place a bet that they wont?)

45002

Iwanttobefree wrote:

I was advised to contact the DWP to check they had had the tribunal decision sent to them.

I'm not the best with phones, but went for it anyway.

On hold for 50 mins, finally get through, they ask me what my NI number is, I tell them the first two letters then they cut me off.

I redial, another 50 odd min wait, and a very helpful and pleasant lady answers.

My short term memory isn't very good when I'm stressed, i cant remember the exact conversation, but it went something like this.

She said that they had received the tribunal decision somewhere (said words to the effect that it wasn't showing up properly on her system).

She then explained that they now have a specialised team dealing with tribunal wins, trying to cut the delay on back payments from 6+ weeks to two to three weeks.

Then she asked me what benefits I was receiving and I told her PiP.

She then said words along the lines of "you weren't receiving any other benefit last year?"

and I told her that while awaiting my first Tribunal, they paid me the basic rate ESA., but that Tribunal was Feb last year and apart from PiP which only started this year, I haven't received anything.

She then asked me to hold while she spoke to her manager.

She came back and said words along the lines of, I'm emailing the specialist team who deal with these to get it sorted. They will phone you up in the next 3 working days to discuss it.

If you see missed calls from an 0800 or private caller, it will probably be them, if you miss them 3 times, you need to phone us back up and arrange a time they can get hold of you (fair enough, I will be in anyway).

I asked as they had my bank details, my history, my PiP payments etc, why they needed to phone me, she replied something like

"They need to discuss with you how you've managed to cope with zero income over the previous year" to which I replied "I've been surviving on my wife's earnings and help from relatives."

She said she will write that on my file.

The conversation seemed very odd to me. Ah well, that was on Thursday, so they should be phoning me up Mon or Tue (who wants to place a bet that they wont?)

Even more confusing reading your last few threads on ESA https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/75705128#Comment_75705128


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5906172/re-work-capability-assessment-i-scored-0-points



.....

poppy12345

I'm confused too and i'm not sure of the reasons for the thread to begin with. OP did you have a question you wanted to ask?

Iwanttobefree

Sorry, not making myself clear as usual.

Having been through hell to win my Tribunal, I finally thought everything was over, I would simply get a letter telling me when my payment was going in.

I phoned up on advice to check they had received the tribunal decision.

Unless the person I spoke to was new (she sounded like she knew her stuff), she gave me the impression something wasn't right, hence her speaking to her manager a few times.

I wasn't asking a question as such, I posted for two reasons.

1) I wondered if any other tribunal winners had to speak in person to the DWP (only time they've ever phoned me is when they stopped my ESA, no phone call whatsoever when I claimed pip and won the mandatory reconsideration)

2) I found it quite ironic that the reason given to me was they wanted to know how I had managed without any money since my ESA was stopped. This can only mean one of two things

a) they are fully 100% aware the financial difficulty their system, is putting on people

or

b) they are implying they don't believe I had zero income.

Using the phone isn't easy for me, it took me about an hour to get up the strength to try phoning the DWP in the first place.

I worry a lot about things and think in unrealistic ways (or think the worst) when in a situation like this, which probably seems like nothing to most people.

pmlindyloo

I think, in part, the misunderstanding has arisen because you have been speaking to DWP call handlers who sometimes have very little knowledge of the benefit system.

Since your wife works more than 24 hours a week then you must be on contribution based ESA.

This is the first possible 'mistake' by the call handler - they thought you were on income based ESA and would not have any other income (in your case, you have wife's). Hence their question how were you managing? ( suspicion of cash in hand springs to mind)

Next, you may not have mentioned that this was an appeal to the Upper Tribunal and would have received no ESA whilst waiting for that appeal. Call handler probably doesn't even know about Upper Tribunals.

I wouldn't worry. The specialist team will sort it out - hence the name specialists.

If you have to ring back ask to speak to a manager/supervisor and don't forget to mention you are receiving contribution based ESA and have won your appeal at the Upper Tribunal.

Iwanttobefree

Just found an answerphone message from them trying to ring me this morning.

Will phone them first thing

[Deleted User]

It might be best to just wait for them to call again. There is no need to call them until they have tried 3 calls.

If you call the same number you called last time, the same thing will happen again, you won't get to speak to the specialists directly.

Iwanttobefree

That's the sort of phone call I like

Money going in on Friday

Won tribunal on the 9th, money in the bank 21 - 23 days later.