Person I need to make claim for is 60 miles away. He has dementia. Placed by my local authority in specialist nursing home. Why is there no flexibility for JCP call centres to issue benefit claim forms to me? He needs a Corporate Appointee. He is incapable of work, will need nursing care for rest of his life.

Yet the JCP system is that I have to travel to him, make the telephone call to the JCP call centre - he gives me permission to make the claim, he is unable to tell me his work history savings, or anything about his life due to dementia. Hopefully the back to work interview will be waived but I have my doubts - that means another trip back to sit and wait for a call somehwhere between 9am to 1 pm.

JCP seems focussed on getting people back to work, but not to claim benefits. Any suggestions about how to proceed in making this claim would be appreciated.

This DWP leaflet A helping hand for benefits (pdf copy) may be a useful read - it explains how to apply to become an appointee, as well as other information for people who have trouble acting for themselves.

Until benefits are in payment I cannot submit application to become Appointee. This man stopped work, was admitted to hospital, then went to a Nursing Home. He is 100% NHS Continuing Care so they fund his stay in Nursing Home.

Are you sure that you cannot submit an application to become an appointee without benefits in payment? The leaflet implies that you can become an appointee in order to "find out what benefits or allowances the person you are helping is entitled to".

Further, I certainly recall that when I worked in a psychiatric hospital a few years back, there were occasions when appointeeship action was carried out by the social services department in order that we could then make claims for patients who couldn't act for themselves.

Thanks I will contact visiting Officer at local JCP when they are back in next week. If we were Appointee then it would simplify matters.

Good luck with it all

Have you tried getting a written authority from the claimant and sending it to JC+? We can generally get the Contact Centre here to issue claim forms (although CMS2 has complicated the process) to advisers, having got agreement about it while they were implementing the JC+ system a couple of years ago. It's not perfect in practice as the standard of service varies wildly between Contact Centre officers, but it shows it can be done. If your local JC+ still has Customer Service I would suggest contacting them. If not, try asking for a Benefit Delivery Manager for the relevant benefit. It also sounds like you have the CMS callback system - if your client can't cope with a lengthy phone call they should issue a paper claim form - there is another thread on Rightsnet about that. I think you do need to be persistent and it can be time consuming but I feel JC+ are too frequently getting away with offering a very poor service to vulnerable claimants.

Download a claim form from the DWP website. They were still there when I last looked.

I think the difficulty here is whether, having regard to the dimentia, he is able to provide authority to appoint or give valid consent to you becoming his appointee. I doubt whether anyone is able to self appoint as an appointee.

The appropriate route maybe be the Court of Protection or an enduring power of attorney.

We have checked previously with the Public Guardianship Office and The Court of Protection will only take applications when there are are financial assets to manage - in this case there are no savings, no house, no benefits in payment - the only route is Appointeeship. I downloaded forms for Incapacity Benefit and Income Support from DWP website and submitted claim forms backed up by a birth certificate - the only identification we had.

Enduring Power of Attorney is not appropriate as he is already mentally incapable.