Universal credit and private pension contributions

DCDWP

Hi all

I work P/T and get UC..  I put half my wage into my personal pension each month, I notify UC each month about this yet, they do not seem to understand I am allowed to do this and base my UC on the entire monthly wage (rather than half).

I asked the DM to look into this in April and to date they are still looking - I have also made a complaint to DWP about this - they are meant to respond within 15 working days - however today is day 32 and still heard nothing, so I have raised a second complaint about it and a complaint that my original complaint hasn't been responded to.

Does anyone know how long it takes the DM to actually read their own legislation and come to a decision? today is day 89 since I was told a DM was looking into it and heard nothing since?

I have read all the posts in here and copied and pasted what your all suggesting but its on deaf ears, can anyone else offer any further advice or what I can do next?

Thanks
D

RobinHill

Hello D, My partner had repeated problems with this a couple of years back. Complete joke just messed her about month after month for about two years. Even meant that she lost out on other gateway benefits eg. council tax reductions etc which could not be applied retrospectively. Contacted her MP and it was promptly addressed however they soon started to mess about again and back to square one. Fortunately my partner is no longer on UC but it is an utter disgrace. Good luck and don't give up.

DCDWP

Hi Robin

Thanks for the response, My MP is involved but at this time he cant do anything due to the election but fingers crossed in the next couple of weeks he can do something, also went to CAB about it who advised me to complain direct to DWP on the DWP site - I have but no response within the 15 days, so another complaint gone in about that and a complaint about the complaint not being actioned too

dul50n

DCDWP said:

Hi all

I work P/T and get UC..  I put half my wage into my personal pension each month, I notify UC each month about this yet, they do not seem to understand I am allowed to do this and base my UC on the entire monthly wage (rather than half).

I asked the DM to look into this in April and to date they are still looking - I have also made a complaint to DWP about this - they are meant to respond within 15 working days - however today is day 32 and still heard nothing, so I have raised a second complaint about it and a complaint that my original complaint hasn't been responded to.

Does anyone know how long it takes the DM to actually read their own legislation and come to a decision? today is day 89 since I was told a DM was looking into it and heard nothing since?

I have read all the posts in here and copied and pasted what your all suggesting but its on deaf ears, can anyone else offer any further advice or what I can do next?

Thanks
D

I feel your pain, it's five months since we were migrated and I've asked for mandatory reconsideration of every payment statement on the basis that personal pension contributions are not taken into consideration

On top of that I've filed CRMR1 forms with the local job centre including evidence of pension contributions

I've raised a complaint that was answered by a dispute resolution manager who clearly didn't know what they were talking about and told me that it was being referred to the DWP Policy Team and that they couldn't give any timescales for a reply. They finished off by saying that they hoped that resolved my dispute, what a moron

I then asked for this to be escalated to the DWP Complaints Team who are supposed to appoint a dedicated team member and respond within 15 days, I've heard nothing

All I need is a decision and if it's the wrong decision I'm going to take them to Tribunal, but the DWP know exactly what they're doing here, if they don't make a decision, you can't move forward

RobinHill

It is absolutely disgraceful that there is no accountability save perhaps this coming Thursday. In addition to the UC / pension contributions issue my partner acting for her LD adult daughter experiences similar dragging of heels by the LA in that they just ignore the law, even the ruling of the ombudsman. I think in this instance it couldn't be taken to tribunal due to some technicality in the LA not completing the ECHP. They paid out the compensation but just ignored the rest of the ombudsman's ruling. Again a theme of little if any accountability. Role on Friday morning :-)    

michaels

RobinHill said:

It is absolutely disgraceful that there is no accountability save perhaps this coming Thursday. In addition to the UC / pension contributions issue my partner acting for her LD adult daughter experiences similar dragging of heels by the LA in that they just ignore the law, even the ruling of the ombudsman. I think in this instance it couldn't be taken to tribunal due to some technicality in the LA not completing the ECHP. They paid out the compensation but just ignored the rest of the ombudsman's ruling. Again a theme of little if any accountability. Role on Friday morning :-)    

Didn't realise we also got to vote out incompetent public sector employees.  I thought Labour were planning to make it harder to sack incompetent workers rather than easier?

RobinHill

I think you'll find the issue goes a bit higher than the run of the mill employee.

michaels

So I have now been referred for a MR - but I haven't been given the option to upload evidence of my pension contribution....

NedS

michaels said:

So I have now been referred for a MR - but I haven't been given the option to upload evidence of my pension contribution....

The MR decision maker will decide, in principle, if your pension contributions can be deducted or not (the law says they can).

Once they have made this decision, and instructed the case manager that all relievable pension contributions are to be deducted, the case manager will then be responsible for collecting evidence of the actual contributions each month from you, and getting those amounts deducted from your earnings as received on RTI.

So there shouldn't really be any need to provide the evidence yet - the DM does not need to see evidence of your actual contributions to make the decision they should be allowed.

michaels

Thank you