UC appointee brought up after 3 prior claims made on my own

Trek98

Hi,

I am currently claiming for UC as I'm looking for work after returning to the UK after time abroad. I was made redundant over a year ago and I did make a claim after that, but I cancelled it afterward as I realised I exceeded the capital limit of £16k. That said, because I used a different email address to make that claim, the DWP pulled up my mother as a historic appointee as she had claimed DLA on my behalf when I was a minor.

As far as I knew, this arrangement ended when I turned 18 / went into full time work after leaving school years ago and I claimed UC on my own without her ever coming up.
As far as we know, we do not have a BF56 / BF57 but we were issued a BF58 today to end the arrangement.

So all is good, but I am wracking my brain as to why the DWP pulled up the appointee last year and now for this claim. We had to get her to write on the journal this morning to relinquish her position before the claim could proceed. The DWP said it was linked to my NIN but I obviously had to give that for the other claims and there was no appointee ever brought up?

Just want to know how I was able to claim UC on my own 3 times - first in 2018, then 2019 and 2020 and have payments into my own account. Any help appreciated - thanks.

huckster

There is a central records system and for your latest claim this was checked. And the appointee was noted.

For previous claims, they did not notice the appointee info on the central records system.

Now that BF58 has been completed, DWP should remove appointee record from their central records system.

Trek98

For previous claims, they did not notice the appointee info on the central records system.

How though?

NedS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82149041#Comment_82149041

I'm afraid the way DWP deals with appointees is inconsistent at best.

As @huckster said, this information is stored on a centralised system, but appointee information isn't automatically shared with the UC system, and staff will not always manually check, so it is not uncommon for someone to make a UC claim and for staff to be unaware that they have an appointee.

Did you tell them you have an appointee? Staff wouldn't routinely check your record on the centralised system unless they have a reason to do so (staff must always have a valid business reason for accessing a client record).