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Pensions Service customer service
It’s a rare day I’ve needed to speak to the Pensions Service these last 6 years as my team deal largely with working age folk however I now have a Pension Credit claim I need to chase up that’s got sticky, albeit not yet due to the Pensions Service.
My question is simple; are the Pensions Service as tardy as Jobcentre Plus or can I expect them to ring me back without hectoring them?
[ Edited: 22 Aug 2018 at 04:05 pm by Dan_Manville ]Frontline phone service, operated by Capita I think, is pretty awful, not helpful but often willfully obstructive. Good luck.
Frontline phone service, operated by Capita I think, is pretty awful, not helpful but often willfully obstructive. Good luck.
PS: PS routinely refuse to provide info under implicit consent.
Frontline phone service, operated by Capita I think, is pretty awful, not helpful but often willfully obstructive. Good luck.
PS: PS routinely refuse to provide info under implicit consent.
Particularly on a Friday, I’ve found!
Reconsideration decisions and DPA requests are woefully slow, slower than JCP and PIP!
Frontline phone service, operated by Capita I think, is pretty awful, not helpful but often willfully obstructive. Good luck.
There’s this below on the above from the CITA Benefits expert advice team- update on topical themes (has a mention and link to Rightnet’s UC mythbuster too).
‘Hot topic’
‘Citizens Advice Ceredigion have become aware of the DWP claims line for State Pension Credit (SPC) being outsourced to Capita, who then use an online calculator to advise on potential entitlement to benefit. In response to a FOI request the DWP have confirmed “Capita gather data from customers and use the appropriate DWP tool to confirm whether a customer is likely to qualify for a benefit and if so,they transfer the telephone call to the DWP for a claim to be made.” CA Ceredigion have had several instances of claimants who were misadvised by Capita that they were not entitled to SPC and hence were not transferred for a claim to be made - for example a claimant who owned a property inhabited by her disabled son (the value of which could have been disregarded under Sch.5 para 4 of the SPC Regs 2002) and a claimant who would have been entitled to savings credit only. They had also become aware of a similar process being used for ESA and JSA claims, including a client who had resigned being told that she could not claim JSA for 13 weeks ( although a sanction may be applied to the claim, this can only be done after further enquiries and does not prevent initial entitlement).
This is obviously a major cause for concern as claimants are not made aware that they are not talking to the DWP at the time, and no decision notices are issued if a claimant is told by Capita that they are not entitled to benefit. In the cases noted by Ceredigion advisers have been able to successfully intervene but clients without the benefit of advice are not likely to pursue a claim. CA Ceredigion are currently pursuing the matter through the DWP’s formal complaints procedure and have raised the matter with their local MP, who has raised the matter with the SSWP Esther McVey but has not received a satisfactory response to date.
We have also taken the matter up with the Operational Stakeholder Engagement Forum of the DWP and will provide a further update when we have their response.
If any other Local Offices have similar problems we would suggest following Ceredigion’s action of following the complaints procedure and also raising the issue with their local MP as well, so that further pressure can be applied to the SSWP to recognise the scale of the problem and the implications for claimants (with potential knock on effects to the DWP due to possible financial redress because of maladministration)’.
Can only echo what everyone else has said. We used to have regular liaison with our local centre in Warrington and that had started to help smooth over some very troubled waters, especially in relation to implied consent where it was clear that the training of managers of the telephony teams was a shambles. At one point I managed a 2 teams of staff who did nothing but take up for older people. Their sole tactic on implied consent was to end the conversation and ring up 5 minutes later until they finally got someone who did understand and accept it.
It was apparent on a tour of the office that the approach to telephony was not customer oriented but very much focused on avoiding fraud. I can see the impetus for outsourcing might not have been solely driven by cost cutting as they had massive problems with the retention of telephony staff. A 50% turnover at certain periods of the year. However, it was apparent that liaison was not something they ever wanted and they backed out of it after about 3 years with a justification that local partnership managers would pick up issues. After which, total silence. PS were once meant to be the “gold standard” of DWP agencies. They are no more or less shambolic than the rest nowadays.
Some of you may remember that the impetus for setting up the PS was DWP research and that telephony in particular was introduced because it was overwhelmingly what customers wanted. Someone did some research which revealed that this whole ethos, which has become a given endlessly rammed down our throats since as “what customers want”, was based on a interviews with precisely 80 people of whom 20 were not even over pension age.
Evidence based policy making at its very best. Good luck Dan.
Good luck Dan.
Thanks all
They didn’t ring me back.
Harumph!
PS: PS routinely refuse to provide info under implicit consent.
We’re appointee on this so that’s one hurdle overcome.
Good luck Dan.
Thanks all
They didn’t ring me back.
Harumph!
PS: PS routinely refuse to provide info under implicit consent.
We’re appointee on this so that’s one hurdle overcome.
I wouldn’t bank on it. One of their great gifts is the ability to ignore what’s being said and start asking questions. They still, after all these years, have staff who start the security questions rather than the implied consent questions. Once they have started you are stuffed. There are only two ways out. Pass the security questions (good luck on the date someone married) or to fail the security questions. Once you have failed you’re noted as a failure and any subsequent call stalls at that point. Can’t talk to you because you previously failed the security questions.
At least they’ve got decent hold music…