universal credit.

Spoonie_Turtle

jojaca said:

Blowing your money in a casino could be classed has ok if you have a gambling addiction, but a family holiday to Florida could seen to be deprivation of capital, decided by some minimum wage agent on the other end of the phone. 

a) I wouldn't want to bank on that
b) it's decided by Decision Makers, not the people on the front line of telephone contact.  (We know DMs do get things wrong, far too often still, but they are more knowledgeable and presumably better trained than the people in the call centres and jobcentres.)

poppy12345

jojaca said:

Blowing your money in a casino could be classed has ok if you have a gambling addiction, but a family holiday to Florida could seen to be deprivation of capital, decided by some minimum wage agent on the other end of the phone. 

No! The call centre staff do not make decisions, only a decision maker can make those. Call centre staff will try to tell you some made up nonsense most likely. 

Danien

poppy12345 said:

jojaca said:

Blowing your money in a casino could be classed has ok if you have a gambling addiction, but a family holiday to Florida could seen to be deprivation of capital, decided by some minimum wage agent on the other end of the phone. 

No! The call centre staff do not make decisions, only a decision maker can make those. Call centre staff will try to tell you some made up nonsense most likely. 

When I was dealing with husband’s pip appeal and putting in mandatory recon, the call centre guy tried to dissuade me from doing it, saying there was no case, and when I said there were several upper tribunal decisions supporting the case I was making, he tried to tell me that upper tribunal decisions have no impact on law. It was hilarious, I actually laughed and told him how funny he was. I also told him that it wasn’t his job to be trying convince the claimant to not make an MR. The decision was changed in husband’s favour as soon as an appeal was requested.

So absolutely right, these dwp call centre staff can be pretty ignorant of the benefits they're discussing. Not their fault, a problem with the training....except the guy I spoke to, he was an idiot and had taken it on himself to try to reduce MR'S.

Seakay

"Under current rules, DWP can only request details of a bank account holder's transactions if there are reasonable grounds to suspect them of fraud" Tue,7 May 2024
https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/dwp-plans-bank-account-surveillance-likely-breach-privacy-law-and-could-amount-unlawful#:~:text=Under current rules, DWP can,to suspect them of fraud.

Alice_Holt

Danien said:

poppy12345 said:

jojaca said:

Blowing your money in a casino could be classed has ok if you have a gambling addiction, but a family holiday to Florida could seen to be deprivation of capital, decided by some minimum wage agent on the other end of the phone. 

No! The call centre staff do not make decisions, only a decision maker can make those. Call centre staff will try to tell you some made up nonsense most likely. 

When I was dealing with husband’s pip appeal and putting in mandatory recon, the call centre guy tried to dissuade me from doing it, saying there was no case, and when I said there were several upper tribunal decisions supporting the case I was making, he tried to tell me that upper tribunal decisions have no impact on law. It was hilarious, I actually laughed and told him how funny he was. I also told him that it wasn’t his job to be trying convince the claimant to not make an MR. The decision was changed in husband’s favour as soon as an appeal was requested.

So absolutely right, these dwp call centre staff can be pretty ignorant of the benefits they're discussing. Not their fault, a problem with the training....except the guy I spoke to, he was an idiot and had taken it on himself to try to reduce MR'S.

         Totally agree.

           When I first started volunteering at CAB (many years ago) we had an escalation line we could phone with the client present, and speak to knowledgeable DWP staff with the discretion to correct DWP errors / missteps. It worked really well, and the DWP staff were proactive in helping the client to resolve their issues.

        It's very different now, with ignorance of the benefits system widespread on the so-called 'help lines' together with an active incentive to give misinformation in order to cut calls short.