Remedies for ‘technical issues’ ??

I have a client who applied for Universal Credit online. After a couple of weeks, they called the customer helpline to chase up the claim as they hadn’t heard anything, only to be told there was a technical issue and they needed submit a new application, which they did immediately. Another couple of weeks later, they again chased up the claim, only to be told that both claims had been properly received, but both had been terminated after 7 days as the DWP had been unable to contact them to arrange their initial interview.

The client advises that they did receive a couple of calls from an unknown number, but when they answered it, there was a few seconds of silence, then the call cut off. They have received no letters or any other form of contact.

I have advised them to make a further claim, providing an alternative contact number, and was considering the possibility of backdating this. However, the criteria are so limited that this does not seem possible.

Does anyone know of any other remedy that might be available as this does not seem fair? Should a letter/email have been sent if the telephone number would not connect? Is it right that the claim was terminated without any notice being given? Is there any scope for complaint/compensatory payment etc?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Sounds like under old-style JSA, where the claim was not completed until a jobseekers agreement had been made.

Do you know if it would have actually have been a UC award, or would it purely have been an award of new-style JSA? The reason I ask is that reg 19 of the Universal Credit, etc Regulations 2013 says that:
“A person wishing to make a claim for a jobseeker’s allowance, unless the Secretary of State otherwise directs, is required to attend for the purpose of making a claim for that allowance, in person at an appropriate office or such other place, and at such time, as the Secretary of State may specify in that person’s case.”
.. but I can not see an equivalent reg requiring attendance at an appropriate in order to complete a general UC claim. Barring that, then reg 10 says that the date of claim is when it is received at the appropriate office, and I would have thought that a subsequent decision to end the claim should have been notified to the claimant and be subject to appeal (?)

Hi Jon

It would definitely have been a UC award – the client is single, no children, fit for work etc.

Thanks

In the middle of an election campaign this might be something the media is interested in; might provoke a reverse ferret if threatened?