Esa budgeting loans delay

Tinlady

It would make sense for the DWP to call the applicant 10 days after sending the loan offer out if it’s not been returned. They can simply say “Our records show that you haven’t returned the acceptance form. Are you still needing the budgeting loan or should we close your application?” It may sound like extra work but I’m pretty sure this would save both parties a lot of trouble. Then the department would be spending their time being productive instead of just answering (or not in my case) the phone to people that haven’t received anything. I’m pretty sure that they have people on their payroll that are supposed to come up with these ideas...

Tinlady

I’ll definitely be trying them again first thing Monday morning, I’m just not confident that they will answer the phone. I’ve been trying to get through since Wednesday and it’s really grinding me down.
I will keep you updated (not sure if you’re interested lol) as to what happens. Fingers crossed for a positive outcome!

Out of interest, has anyone ever called the DWP and NOT heard the classic “We are experiencing high call volumes at present...” message?

Robbie64

I believe that until recently three DWP offices were dealing with Social Fund Budgeting Loan applications: Wembley, Chesterfield and Birmingham. The Wembley office has now closed and there have been numerous problems since then. I wonder if the work that was previously handled by Wembley has simply been shared between the two remaining offices?

The Wembley office used to handle Budgeting Loan applications for Scotland and parts of the north of England, perhaps elsewhere too. That's a lot of work to share elsewhere and it probably accounts for the backlogs and possibly the long telephone waiting times if those two remaining offices are also handling all telephone traffic.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for that. Could explain some of the issues I suppose.

[Deleted User]

Did you give them a call?

I rang this morning as I needed to query something in regards to my application and I called at 8.35am and got through after 43minutes.