Overpaid carer's allowance

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JIL said:

Calls are also logged back to numbers, so if mr brie was able to say I phoned from my mobile number of xxx and a rough date the call can be traced. 

That's not how it works.  When you phone a call centre the initial call is answered by the call centre software you are then held in a queue (and redirected according to what options you press) and eventually you call is answered.    The software does not log which staff answered which incoming calling number.  

The software can trace each member of staff''s calls, i.e. if a manager was to look at Jackie's calls they would be able to listen to all of them.  

But if a customer was to say I called you at x I don't know who I spoke to.... the company cannot say ok your call was answered by Jackie

It may be the case that certain call centres can do this - but the DWP cannot.

Brie

xxxxxxxx said:

The software can trace each member of staff''s calls, i.e. if a manager was to look at Jackie's calls they would be able to listen to all of them.  

But if a customer was to say I called you at x I don't know who I spoke to.... the company cannot say ok your call was answered by Jackie

It may be the case that certain call centres can do this - but the DWP cannot.

But assuming we can find out when we made the calls then we can ask that they check who made notes (if any) on that day and time.  And from there they would know who had made the notes and did or didn't take the correct action.

JIL

xxxxxxxx said:

JIL said:

Calls are also logged back to numbers, so if mr brie was able to say I phoned from my mobile number of xxx and a rough date the call can be traced. 

That's not how it works.  When you phone a call centre the initial call is answered by the call centre software you are then held in a queue (and redirected according to what options you press) and eventually you call is answered.    The software does not log which staff answered which incoming calling number.  

The software can trace each member of staff''s calls, i.e. if a manager was to look at Jackie's calls they would be able to listen to all of them.  

But if a customer was to say I called you at x I don't know who I spoke to.... the company cannot say ok your call was answered by Jackie

It may be the case that certain call centres can do this - but the DWP cannot.

It can and does.  

Yes the calls are held in a queue and go through to the next available call handler with the skill set. But the software which is used all across DWP and outsourcing centres, can trace the call from queuing to answer. 
It also provides lots of other data such as how many calls received from a certain number (frequent callers)

If a complaint is made that says I called dwp and the member of staff was very rude to me, the call can be listened to. Calls are taken on phones that require the staff to log into a network and call routing is straightforward after that. 
Carers allowance unit use the same phone system that's used across all dwp contact centres.

The complaint guidance below asks for sufficient information to get the required details.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

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Brie
That assumes the person who took your call made notes, 99% of the time a staff member will act correctly answer the call and leave notes about what the call was about.  

Which is why I already advised you to phone CA and simply ask them to look back through the notes and tell you what notes have been recorded on what dates and saying what was the call about.   If they find a note that you called to say you had stopped caring then the overpayment will be non recoverable from that date onwards.... If you informed them late they will recover the portion that was overpaid before you called them. 

By the way this does not happen on Universal Credit the government finally got their act together and made legislation so that all overpayments of benefit (New Style benefits inc UC) will be recovered no matter whose fault it was.  

Even under old style benefits the law does allow certain errors by the DWP to be "allowed" and still recover the overpayment - if the claimant did not fulfill their duty to notify.  However, if the claimant fulfilled their duty (and can prove it) in notifying the DWP. The DWP cannot under any circumstances make the overpayment recoverable except on a voluntarily basis.

Brie

And OH has been paid yet again for carer's allowance.  And MiL has died so there's really no need for him to get anything.

So what should I/he do?

Notify them for a third time???  (June, 2 Sept & now??)   I could try my MP but I really cannot be asked at a particularly busy time.

Any clue how long it might take them to action anything??