Getting some benefit claim forms used to be quite easy even if getting the benefit wasn’t!
The Benefit Enquiry Line have always been able to send out incapacity benefit forms (SC1). I’ve rang them last week to get one and they told me that they are not allowed to send them out any more. Sounded miffed - part of their usefulness being taken away. Said I needed to ring the local Jobcentreplus office instead. Recognised that wasn’t easy gave me the telephone number for the distribution centre instead (not supposed to do this they said). I rang this number - spoke to a frosty women who said I shouldn’t have been given the number. She couldn’t send a form out without first making an appointment for an interview to attend the Jobcentreplus office first. “This person’s is very sick” I said. She wavered and finally agreed to send the form. It arrived today.
What a performance to get an incapacity benefit claim form. (I have to confess it wasn't to make a claim. I use the forms when I am explaining incapacity benefit on the training courses I run)
Anyone else had this experience? Or found other methods to get the forms? Penny

There is a new computer system running now in certain parts of the country being rolled out nationally , the Old SC1 will shortly be obsolete, or very few stocks will be held , we dont tend to use them in Derby anymore unless for any reason the claim had to be done clerically

whole load of claim forms avaialable to download at

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/resourcecentre/claim_forms.asp

you can download an SC1 at

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/claimforms/sc1_print.pdf

thank you both

At a meeting with JCP yesterday, we asked politelly what would happen if they received an I/S claim directly from a member of the public who had got the form from the DWP site on the net. They said it would not be processed, and they have to go through the call centre.

When it was pointed out that they had no powers to turn a claim away, it became clear that they didn't know the regs - they thought that a whole new raft of rules had been written.

However, what was breathtaking was the attitude that "we can't allow such actions by the public because of administrative reasons - particularly as it messes up their computerised appointment booking system.

The other point that was revealing was concerning staffing levels. They mentioned that processing times times etc are being affected by staff leaving ahead of the proposed redundancies - complete embargo on taking on new staff. We asked what happened when a section such as I/S got down below the staffing level necessary to keep it operating even reasonably efficiently - they said they still could not fill any vacancies.

Theoretically therefore, one could have a I/S or Incap section running on four people - one on holiday, one goes sick - down to two for weeks at a time. I assume that the situation is similar throughout the country.....So it's quite clear that administrative considerations come first, with the client coming a very poor second.

Mike

This is one of my particular hobby horses and I,ve posted many responses to this particular subject in the past. This makes me so mad, the blatant unlawfulness of what is a simple and fundamental right; the right to make a claim. I am sick and tired of this coming up again and again and again.

It is illuminating that they think there are new regs on the subject rather than just being ignorant of existing law. What makes them think that? Have they been led to believe this by politicians, senior civil servants or senior managers?

Cannot CPAG or a similar campaigning organisation take a judicial review test case on this issue, publicise it widely and get this matter settled once and for all. How many more people are undergoing hardship by being denied the opportunity to claim at the earliest opportunity.

Regards
Paul

I think they just assumed that the whole new system had needed new regs to set it up. These are the same people I had a couple of conversations with regarding them only offering crisis loans to claimants (instead of interim payments) who couldn't wait for the benefit to be processed.

We have a quarterly Benefits liaison meeting coming up in May, normally attended by numerous advisers from a motley collection of Voluntary and Statutory agencies - there will be searching questions.

I note that the Director of DWP Northern Ireland publically said that he has doubts about being able to deliver, taking into account cuts in his budget and the redundancies: brave man, but one wonders how long before it's decided he might enjoy early retirement.....?

Somebody really ought to ask the elected powers that be just what happened to the vision of a seamless transparent benfit system.

yes, i've experienced this too, with the person asserting the authority of 'a directive'. i have had to repeat _several_ times in response to the 'directive' claims, that there has been no change in the law - before any doubt has crept in to only very slightly diminish their total confidence...

i'm reminded suddenly of how the repeated smiling refusals of health care professionals around the delivery table _eventually_ penetrated my pain and pethedine haze, and they were right - i didn't, despite my insistence, want to go to the toilet after all...but it's not the sort of thing you expect anyone to know better than yourself...and i'd never had a baby before : )

i am very fed up with this fundamental issue we should not have to argue about, but it is very important...

jj

We don't have JC+ here in edinburgh (yet). My only experience of the full JC+ system so far has been trying to help someone from Livingston get a £4 a week income support top up of their existing incapacity benefit award.

I rang the JC+ office only to be told they could not send out an IS claim form and the claimant would have to go there for an interview. After insisting on speaking to a superviser they agreed to part process the claim on the phone. This took about 45 minutes at the end of which yet another phone call interview with the claimant was arranged for the following week. Apparently this one then took another half hour.

I could have filled in an A1 claim form in 10 minutes thereby saving an ill claimant a lot of ridiculous hassle.

I'm pleased I started this debate.
I'm always looking for quick and practical ways to include on my training courses, how to make a claim. I began to get insensed when on one of my fact finding session I rang the helpful BEL line and they said their hands were tied because they are not allowed to send out forms to claim incapacity benefit any more. Those of you who have responded have confirmed my fears.
On my training courses I always want present the "real benefit world" explaining how things really are on the ground.
Just explaining the regulations "who can claim" sadly isn't enough.
So how can we make a public fuss about this?
Where is Mr Blair going today? Can we get someone to ask him a question about this? I think I'm aiming too high. Perhaps Malcolm Wicks

I am aware that in the areas that have been 'plussed' it can be a nuisance having to ring the contact centre for a claim form for a customer, but in this case the SCI was needed for training purposes. If you had explained that to the first person that you spoke to I'm sure that a form would have been sent to you without any fuss,if there were still any in the office, although it might have had ' for training purposes' written on it.

JCP offices no longer hold stocks of claim forms so you are not being given the runaround if you are told that one cannot be sent.

In this office, if a downloaded IS claim form is received it is sent to the contact centre for them to do their bit, i.e.arrange interview and notify customer etc.The date of claim is taken as the date that the form was downloaded unless it is received more than one calendar month after the download date, in which case the date of receipt is the date of claim.For IB claims it's the same, apart from the one month date.

It can cause problems for the customer if they are given a claim form by an advice organisation, because the date of claim would be the date that the completed form was received in the office, which could be some time later. Before we had the contact centres,when CAB for example) could hold stocks of forms we had an arrangement that the advice org. would fax the office to say that a form had been issued so that the date of claim could be established.I don't know how this would be regarded nowadays, given the advent of contact centres, but it might work in an emergency. We get very few downloaded claims because of the cost of printing them off, particularly in colour!

Have just read my posting and was mortified to see that the x I put after CAB has turned in to a grumpy face! This was not deliberate, I was just using the accepted abbreviation for multiple CAB's!

I reckon you've given the game away there Judith with how JC+ really feels about CABx (deliberate smiley btw)