With the ntroduction of £50 civil penalty in cases of claimant error…

...has anyone considered possibly mirroring this for those occasions when the DWP make mistakes? A letter each and every time there is significant error or delay with anyones claim for benefit?! A claim for maladministration in each case of…let’s say £50 ??

I wonder who makes more mistakes…claimants or the DWP?

Funny you should say that.  I wrote to the Secretary of State recently and suggested that for every DWP error the Crown Prosecution Service should take the person responsible and break him on the wheel.  I’m still waiting for a reply.  I’ll give it another week.

I was pleasantly surprised recently - by DWP!!!  Cl. phoned them to get ESA paid by giro as she was in process of changing bank accounts.  She was assured this would be done for the next payment.  It wasn’t, & Cl. had great difficulty getting the money from her old bank.  I wrote a complaint letter to DWP.  Very rapid polite apologetic phone call & £50 compensation for Cl.

I had expected far less - if anything.  Are they ahead of the game - paying £50 for their errors as a quid pro quo for charging £50 for claimant errors?  Were those pigs I saw flying out of the window just now?  Or am I being too cynical?

Just to make a serious point for those who may not know about this non-statutory scheme, there is a Financial Redress for Maladministration scheme that DWP operates.

One interesting point I note from the apparently recently revised guidance for the scheme was this section:

It is not necessary for an individual to request consideration of a special payment. The appropriateness of making a payment should be routinely considered in any attempt to rectify departmental maladministration, which may have resulted in a customer (or a third party) experiencing injustice and/or hardship.

So DWP should be routinely offered special payments where they mess up then, should they…..?

...my initial post was a serious point. I would like to see claims for maladministration made routinely by claimants and welfare rights workers. Maybe then we may see a little improvement in the way peoples claims are dealt with.

I doubt very much that the DWP gives much consideration (if any) to the possibility of an ex gratia payment as the guidance suggests.

I’ve certainly never known them to do so unless asked.