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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Access to justice and advice sector issues  →  Thread

A DWP representative

Dan_Manville
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Mental health & welfare rights service - Wolverhampton City Council

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How do. I just got to wondering whether DWP have ever had a representative on here; I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in, what, maybe 14 years I’ve been a member.

Wouldn’t it be a good idea? We know that they read it after all; if someone popped up to say that they were taking stuff on board and trying to resolve these broad concerns it would make the country a better place.

Now I have seen rep’s of other organisations (specifically British Waterways) get flamed on other boards, however this is a professional forum and I’m sure it wouldn’t happen here.

So hows about it?

Tom H
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Newcastle Welfare Rights Service

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Dan Manville - 17 February 2015 01:09 PM

..I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in, what, maybe 14 years I’ve been a member.

Not remember the well intentioned contributor who attempted to explain the procedure for registering a PIP claim when claimant not present.  It revealed that DWP Legal had amazingly attempted to codify in guidance form all 32 million possible permutations of call/written claim.  About 0.000035% of the way through, the posts were pulled by someone higher up.  For the rest of the day i wandered round office muttering “must have client present, must have client present”.

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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Definitely individual members on here. Not sure what the value is for a speific official rep. though. The outcome is inevitable. Some members (albeit few) have been flamed on here over the years so it would be a matter of time before someone cracked in respect of the DWP when understandably exasperated over something. We would like to think it wouldn’t happen, but it would. It’s human nature.

1964
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Deputy Manager, Reading Community Welfare Rights Unit

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Yes, I fear Dan is right. Also (and I am sure this sounds a bit silly) I would feel as if we had a mole in our midst.

Dan_Manville
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1964 - 18 February 2015 08:21 AM

Yes, I fear Dan is right. Also (and I am sure this sounds a bit silly) I would feel as if we had a mole in our midst.

We’ve got moles in our midst anyway; remember the Thank You Card FOI reply? Twice Judges have discussed my posts on here with me in the past. My ex wife worked for DWP and a couple of times came back with print outs from their intranet chat board where they were discussing posts on here; the outrage after Howker was palpable on their part, it was and probably still is very “them and us”.

I have no doubt that DWP keep a close eye on this board; even at relatively low pay grades. I tend not to discuss interesting submissions openly so as to keep them guessing!

 

[ Edited: 23 Feb 2015 at 09:42 am by Dan_Manville ]
benefitsadviser
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I very much doubt that the department would look kindly on a DWP rep commenting here.

Either they would toe the party line 100% and be shot down in flames, or they would question DWP policy, and that simply isnt cricket chaps.

I cant see anything positive coming out of such engagement.

I used to go to local DWP meetings, and some DWP management appear quite delusional about the reasonableness of Mr Duncan Smiths insanity (ie sanctioning peoples UC for “only” working 30 hours a week etc etc)

Mike Hughes
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benefitsadviser - 25 February 2015 12:44 PM

I very much doubt that the department would look kindly on a DWP rep commenting here.

Either they would toe the party line 100% and be shot down in flames, or they would question DWP policy, and that simply isnt cricket chaps.

I cant see anything positive coming out of such engagement.

I used to go to local DWP meetings, and some DWP management appear quite delusional about the reasonableness of Mr Duncan Smiths insanity (ie sanctioning peoples UC for “only” working 30 hours a week etc etc)

We’ve had several of those over the years. Work part-time. Thinks it absolutely reasonable to sanction people for working part-time because their own circumstances are inevitably “different”.