Winter fuel payment

MalMonroe

Tyger8 said:

I wish to apologise for my behaviour, I haven't been well lately and realise people have only been trying to help. I know this is no excuse but what with self isolating for the last 10 months and then this problem over my WFP. I have been getting rather stressed and then I received the bill for my heating and I'm afraid it all got a bit to much. I will let you know the outcome of my dispute with the DWP but I won't blame you if you're not interested.

Hello, I'm sure someone will be interested. And to be honest, the rules of this forum seem to have been forgotten by some of the users recently. We're supposed to be nice. In fact the update to the rules appears on my computer in the middle of this very page. Everyone gets stressed from time to time and it's very often about money. This is what we're supposed to do : "Be friendly to other MoneySavers, board guides and the forum team. The forum community is intended to be a safe place that supports mental wellbeing."

Hope this helps. We are supposed to be supportive on here and I'm sorry that you feel let down. 

KatrinaWaves

MalMonroe said:

Tyger8 said:

I wish to apologise for my behaviour, I haven't been well lately and realise people have only been trying to help. I know this is no excuse but what with self isolating for the last 10 months and then this problem over my WFP. I have been getting rather stressed and then I received the bill for my heating and I'm afraid it all got a bit to much. I will let you know the outcome of my dispute with the DWP but I won't blame you if you're not interested.

Hello, I'm sure someone will be interested. And to be honest, the rules of this forum seem to have been forgotten by some of the users recently. We're supposed to be nice. In fact the update to the rules appears on my computer in the middle of this very page. Everyone gets stressed from time to time and it's very often about money. This is what we're supposed to do : "Be friendly to other MoneySavers, board guides and the forum team. The forum community is intended to be a safe place that supports mental wellbeing."

Hope this helps. We are supposed to be supportive on here and I'm sorry that you feel let down. 

Being let down? Not following the rules to be nice?

He was asked ‘have you checked they have the right bank details?’ What was unkind about that? How was asking that question ‘letting him down.’ No one was unkind to them. They responded extremely rudely to simple questions, called people idiots, and have now apologised. 

Nobody was unsupportive. There is nothing for anyone to be sorry for so why you feel the need to apologise for others (as you haven’t commented) I don’t know. Do not apologise on my behalf, with me being the one asking the question, as I am not apologising. The only person who needed to apologise was the OP, and they have. No need for creeping comments about forum rules from sycophants when the only person breaking them is the person you are grovelling to 🙄

Pollycat

Tyger8 said:

Thank you Pollycat you have been very understanding and also thanks to MalMonroe, I will be sure to inform you when I hear from the DWP and once again I am sorry.

Now, I do understand where you're coming from.
Not from personal experience but I have a friend who relies on benefits and late or non payment would be incredibly stressful.
I have read about hardship payments, maybe once you prove to DWP that you really haven't had the payment, it might be applicable to you.
I'm on my phone and find googling a bit of a faff but hopefully someone can advise.
If you think it's going to take a while to sort out, would it be worth speaking to your fuel supplier?

[Deleted User]

Pollycat said:

Tyger8 said:

Thank you Pollycat you have been very understanding and also thanks to MalMonroe, I will be sure to inform you when I hear from the DWP and once again I am sorry.

Now, I do understand where you're coming from.
Not from personal experience but I have a friend who relies on benefits and late or non payment would be incredibly stressful.
I have read about hardship payments, maybe once you prove to DWP that you really haven't had the payment, it might be applicable to you.
I'm on my phone and find googling a bit of a faff but hopefully someone can advise.
If you think it's going to take a while to sort out, would it be worth speaking to your fuel supplier?

To point out though it’s not late yet. They have until the 13th January to pay it. Therefore just because they receive it at a particular time one year doesn’t guarantee for the following and therefore shouldn’t be assumed to be. 

Although the DWP have said it’s been paid and they dispute this, that’s fine, but in the eyes of DWP it’s not late so that’s given them time and breathing space to sort it. 

Once that date has elapsed then I’d be more inclined to get back in touch and ask what has been done and provide anything they are asking for. If that fails you’ll need to go down the formal complaint route. 

Pollycat

You're right, Mark. The payment is not late.

I realised that after I posted.

But this is not just a case of someone entitled to WFP being one of the last people to receive it.

DWP seem to be insistent that it has been paid - on 24th November.

But the OP hasn't received it.

The OP provided bank statements around 30/12.

[Deleted User]

Pollycat said:

You're right, Mark. The payment is not late.

I realised that after I posted.

But this is not just a case of someone entitled to WFP being one of the last people to receive it.

DWP seem to be insistent that it has been paid - on 24th November.

But the OP hasn't received it.

The OP provided bank statements around 30/12.

I’m also not disputing that. I’m just pointing out in the eyes of the DWP, now that they have said they haven’t received the payment they will investigate but because it’s not classed as late yet they still have a while to reply and sort it out. 

As with a lot of things though, that’s not guaranteed and they may need to go down the formal complaint route. 

Pollycat

MarkN88 said:

I’m also not disputing that. I’m just pointing out in the eyes of the DWP, now that they have said they haven’t received the payment they will investigate but because it’s not classed as late yet they still have a while to reply and sort it out.

As with a lot of things though, that’s not guaranteed and they may need to go down the formal complaint route. 

Agreed.

But I would hope that a payment alleged to have been made almost 6 weeks ago but hasn't been received would receive priority.

[Deleted User]

Pollycat said:

MarkN88 said:

I’m also not disputing that. I’m just pointing out in the eyes of the DWP, now that they have said they haven’t received the payment they will investigate but because it’s not classed as late yet they still have a while to reply and sort it out.

As with a lot of things though, that’s not guaranteed and they may need to go down the formal complaint route. 

Agreed.

But I would hope that a payment alleged to have been made almost 6 weeks ago but hasn't been received would receive priority.

It more than likely will. However the DWP would also have been closed over some of the Christmas and New Year holidays, so once you take out all those days, since it was reported, it hasn’t been too long. 

isleofdogs

We are the first time applicants for the Winter Fuel Payments.  In mid-October 2020 we completed 2 forms (downloaded from DWP website) - provided our joint bank account for payments, and posted them to WFP in one envelope.  Two weeks later we received separate letters advised we qualified for £100 each, and if the payment not received by 23rd December 2020 we should contact them.
We checked our joint bank account, and found that they paid me £100 on 15th December 2020 (identified by my NI number), but no payment to hubby.  So we decided to wait till after 23rd December to call.  On that day it was impossible to get through.  We waited until. this week to call to find out why hubby not received his payment.  After waiting for half hour or more and calls dropped out, we got through and were told since hubby did not receive any pension he should call the new claim (?!).  Reason hubby does not receive any pension because he had not contributed to NI for 10 years or longer - he contributed to NI for 8 years and paid a lot of his salary to NI until he was 65.
We then called the new WFP claim.  They said both of our WFP were made to our joint bank account on 15th December 2020 - £100 each.  We should contact our bank and ask them.  We contacted our bank, they said no, it would be DWP to trace the payments as they only received one payment and not two !!!
Our question is:  who should we contact to sort the missing payment?  DWP or the bank?  DWP insisted that they made the payments, and could not help any further.  Our bank said they could not help because they did not make the payments!
HELP!  Should I approach one of the newspaper (the money section) to ask them if they can help.
Thanks in advance.

poppy12345

isleofdogs said:

We are the first time applicants for the Winter Fuel Payments.  In mid-October 2020 we completed 2 forms (downloaded from DWP website) - provided our joint bank account for payments, and posted them to WFP in one envelope.  Two weeks later we received separate letters advised we qualified for £100 each, and if the payment not received by 23rd December 2020 we should contact them.
We checked our joint bank account, and found that they paid me £100 on 15th December 2020 (identified by my NI number), but no payment to hubby.  So we decided to wait till after 23rd December to call.  On that day it was impossible to get through.  We waited until. this week to call to find out why hubby not received his payment.  After waiting for half hour or more and calls dropped out, we got through and were told since hubby did not receive any pension he should call the new claim (?!).  Reason hubby does not receive any pension because he had not contributed to NI for 10 years or longer - he contributed to NI for 8 years and paid a lot of his salary to NI until he was 65.
We then called the new WFP claim.  They said both of our WFP were made to our joint bank account on 15th December 2020 - £100 each.  We should contact our bank and ask them.  We contacted our bank, they said no, it would be DWP to trace the payments as they only received one payment and not two !!!
Our question is:  who should we contact to sort the missing payment?  DWP or the bank?  DWP insisted that they made the payments, and could not help any further.  Our bank said they could not help because they did not make the payments!
HELP!  Should I approach one of the newspaper (the money section) to ask them if they can help.
Thanks in advance.

A new thread would have been better, rather than asking your question on the end of a thread that's 5 pages long.

I'd advise you to send in bank statements to DWP to prove the other £100 wasn't received.