We have just had a client come to see us who is still waiting for his JSA after making a rapid reclaim in February. When our advisor rang our local benefit processing centre she was put through to a call centre in Pembroke Dock who said that they would get Totton (our centre) to call him within the hour (thus preventing our advisors from speaking on his behalf) and hour and a half later he returned having had no call back. The advisor rang again and this was answered in Exeter where she was told (again that he would be called back in the hour). How we laughed!

If he doesn't get a call back we intend to contact our MP this afternoon and obviously have raised this as Social Policy. Does anyone know a way for CAB advisors to actually get to speak to a decision maker?

I don't think you have an MP at the moment.

Is this a duck house or a constitutional issue?

We have a list of direct dial numbers and e-mail addresses for the supervisors and the manager at our contact centre, have you checked with your benefits department whether they have anything similar?

I could give you the e-mail address of our District Manager if you think it would be any use to you.

Nicky

Thank you Nicky

They did give us email addresses and none of them work. We used to have numbers but they have all been withdrawn now - I'd be really grateful for any information on contacting them. Any letter we send seems to go straight into the shredder.

regards


Jane

Have e-mailed you

Hi All,

I have been advised by an excellent Customer Service Manager (CSM) at Exeter BDC that as of next month the role of CSM will no longer exist in some BDC's in the South West (Exeter, Chippenham, St Austell and Dorset). Instead there will be four CSM's based at Plymouth BDC which will now handle the South West issues.

My friendly CSM explained they had only been told the week before, but were already boxing up their files to send to Plymouth! And that DWP felt call centres were the way forward.

The CSM's have been our 'points of contact' and have enabled us to bypass the usual red tape. I guess I now have to start building up contacts in Plymouth if I am ever to get things done.

Chaos

Amendment:
The four affected BDC's are: Exeter, Chippenham, St Austell, Plymouth.

Chaos

That all sounds really grim.

It all sounds normal...

Hi Sister Chaos up in Taunton

Excellent being the operative word for Susie (CSM at Exeter BDC).

Disgruntled down in Yeovil

It was Exeter who helped us in the end


Jane

Hi Andy,

I knew you would not be a happy bunny about Susie.

I doubt it is any consolation but the powers that be have asked her for advice on how to build up good relationships with other orgs...
Her response was 'make them feel like they can call me', that just about sums Susie up. She will be greatly missed by us here in Taunton.

Chaos