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DWP postal addresses

Daphne
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rightsnet writer / editor

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We have had an email via stakeholders to ask that adviser ensure that they are sending mail to the correct address as set out here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-dwp-postal-addresses

Jeremy Barker
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Citizens Advice North Lincolnshire

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Are those addresses/postcode in the list linked to correct? My colleagues and I have always understood that following the transition to the centralised handling sites any letters from the DWP that have a Mail Handling Site A or Post Handling Site B address on them have the correct address to send any correspondence concerning the content of the letter and the list only needs to be used if you have an old address that isn’t for the centralised handling sites.

I ask because we regularly see clients with letters from the DWP that have different addresses to those in the list. For example, ESA claims being dealt with in Hull have letters showing “Hull, Hull Benefit Centre, Mail Handling Site A, WV98 1GD” but the list says that WV98 1GD is “Barnsley Benefit Centre (do not for ESA - see Annex A)”. We have never seen any letters sent to ESA claimants that have the ESA Hull address and postcode shown in the list (ESA Hull, Mail Handling Site A, WV98 2AG).

It seems to me that the DWP needs to get its act together and either update their addresses list or put the correct addresses in their letters.

Giles Elliott
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benefitsowl.info, Manchester

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I also note that the document is dated from December 2016 - I wouldn’t be in the least surprised to learn that some addresses have changed since then. Sigh…

Daphne
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I will feed all that back to them and ask for clarification…

Daphne
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Rather hopelessley their reply was -

If a client has a letter, then the address on that letter should be used. If there’s no DWP letter or correspondence to refer to for an address, then the address on gov.uk should be used. In either case, if the address used has a WV postcode, mail will still end up at the Mail Opening Unit.

- which didn’t seem to address Jeremy’s point that the addresses don’t match. So I wrote back and they then said -

All of the addresses on gov.uk (whether they have the correct post code or not) would still be sent to the MOU where it’s possible to identify the correct business unit and action accordingly. As part of our postal transformation work, updating addresses on gov.uk will be looked at in due course

- which begs the question why did they ask us to check it in the fist place if it’s not correct!! I fed that back too…

[ Edited: 23 May 2019 at 02:26 pm by Daphne ]
Giles Elliott
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benefitsowl.info, Manchester

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Oh dear: thanks for trying Daphne: I await developments with bated breath…

Va1der
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Welfare Rights Officer with SWAMP Glasgow

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Are there any updates on this?

I just phoned DWP because my client had lost her ESA50 return envelope, and I was given 3 different addresses when speaking to various staff on the 0800 169 0310 helpline. A local address in Edinburgh (my client is based in Edinburgh), a Freepost address, and when I brought it up myself, the Wolverhampton mail handling site address.
Going by DWP policy, I suspect any address I used would cause the letter to be forwarded to the same mail handling site.

That said, the existence of addresses other than freepost may be useful if we want to send recorded deliveries, for MRs for instance.