Hi this may seem bad but I can not find any information about making a complaint against DWP in Belfast in regards to maladministration.
Can someone help PLEASE?

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/contact/complaintsappeals.asp

What was the alleged maladministration?

Hi well I dont know where to start really but ...
Social worker assisted client in making a claim for Income Support based on her Agoraphobia condition / Incapacity also claimed at the same time/ this was on the 16.06 she then signed a tenancy and moved to her new flat in July they went to the local Job Centre and filled the change of address actually they have done this twice but Belfast argued that they have never received that form. Job Centre e-mailed Belfast confirming the change of address still nothing. After about 20 or so phone calls etc we learnt that the claim was closed because my client did not reply to a letter sent on the 24th June 2008/ we have not received this letter or any others/ and we have to make a new claim.
So I dont really understand why didnt we told about it before and this costed us and the Tax Payers 2 months of 2 workers trying to resolve this.

Some of the times when we called DWP they could not see even the claim on their system there is always problems and we are sick and tired.


well I hope I explained it all so tell me what you think should we sweat further or is not worth doing so????

Thank You

i assume the jobcentre which was attended in person was around your area, not in belfast...so any arguments from belfast about them not receiving the form are completely irrelevant to the disallowance/non-payment of claimed benefit. The loss of claim forms by the DWP is entirely relevant to the question of maladministration....

The 'closure' of the claim on tenuous grounds is most likely i.m.e. is most turn out to be entirely unlawful, difficult to imagine how it can be justified against significant contact in the subsequent month, with social worker involvement, face to face contact at the job centre and 20 or so phonecalls, witnessed...

your client is owed money and deserves better treatment. is it worth complaining about a poor and vulnerable person being robbed by the government? is it worth doing anything at all? there is no answer to this existential question, and it comes down to your beliefs. If it's any help at all, the Secretary of State doesn't accept that there is maladministration (on any significant scale). well, he wouldn't, would he? - to quote mandy rice davies. well, it could just be that not enough evidence has re4ached his eyes.

As Jan said they cannot just ‘close the claim’. This is an outdated concept and the terminology is meaningless. What they must do is make an outcome (nil entitlement) decision and notify that in writing to the claimant. That then gives the claimant a statutory right of appeal.

You will need to ascertain whether they have done this. If they have but the claimant has not received it then determine the date of notification and lodge a late appeal.

If they have not notified an outcome decision to the claimant then her claim is still 'live' and the local jobcentre and Belfast must get their acts together and ensure that the info ends up at the appropriate place.

If that fails then get them to notify an outcome decision (which I reiterate, they are lawfully obliged to do) and the claimant can, therefore, exercise her appeal rights within time.

If at the end of the process, the claimant has exhausted all her rights, has suffered financial loss and can demonstrate that the loss is due to maladministration then she might be entitled to compensation. See the guide to maladministration and financial redress on the DWP’s website.

Hi Nevip,
thank you for the reply, to the best of my knowledge my client did not have any letters of decision and thats why we had to call and find out whats happening with this claim. I have read abou Maladministration but dont know whether we have grounds to state that there was an error. Well to me clearly there was one as they should've told me or the SW that the claim was 'Closed' so we can apply for backdating + make new claim.
the most funny thing is that we have now applied for Income Support again and received a letter asking my client to provide Learning agreement when we clearly stated on the form that she is not in College and we claim IS based on her illness.

Well I think that a complaint is worth but also hope for compensation as the whole situation did not help my client and she felt humiliated and embarassed as she had to plead Social Services for loans.

Hi John,
i have seen this website but it does only show how to make complaints to the Job centre and in this case the Local one was very helpfull we are not happy with the way Belfast hadled the case.