Jobcentre Plus has arrived in this area and there are problems with claiming IS for Mentally ill, housebound, people not able to use phones and severely disabled. Can anyone who is working in a JCP area tell me whether their local office (and which one it is) is issuing A1's to advisors in cases where no-one can assist the claimant in making the telephone application?

It is 68 pages, but you can download it from http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/claimforms/a1_print.pdf

We have had JC+ for just over a year (in some parts of Newcastle) and mostly don't have too many problems getting claim forms for clients. But we set up liaison with them through the Implementation Team before it all "went live" and have carried that on. They do like us to send them updated copies of our service family tree so they know who we are. You could contact Customer Services and suggest you have a similar arrangement. One of the main difficulties seems to be that they have quite a fast turnover of staff particularly at the Contact Centre and new staff aren't always aware of the arrangement - means talking to a supervisor.

I have just been informed by our local office, all income support claim forms will be phased out in the very near future, including ones currently available for downloading. They have said that all new claims will have to be done over the phone and there is no alternative solution to this.

Has anyone else heard the same, or is it a case of just pushing harder for them?

Any thoughts anyone? - this has the potential to affect an awful lot of people.

In relation to the original query. I work in a JCPlus area and prior to that we were part of the ONE pilot area which was based on telephone claims only. They have never operated only on the basis of phone claims. They are grateful that someone is willing to complete the claim form, and I have never had any difficulty in getting them to send out claim forms.

I deal almost exclusively with disabled and very ill clients, including some with severe mental illness. Jobcentreplus arrived in Liverpool last autumn and I have so far not had any difficulty getting paper forms sent out very promptly when the client can't use the phone. However, the JC+ staff have to print them out from their own website because they don't keep stocks of forms any more.