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Corporate Appointee
Hello, just after some help please. We have started to have clients that either have an existing claim to UC or a new claim needs to be made. How do other Corporate Appointee’s make the claim to UC? I take it that it has to be done on-line regardless. We have an issue with that in setting user names and passwords and security questions.
We have been asking DWP about this since 2015. There is no progress to report.
I can’t even make an application online as they ask for mobile phone number and email address. Is there any way of not making the application online?
We have asked about this: silence has followed.
There have been mentions of a successful approach in one county, but when we ask for details they are not given.
Some developments on Corporate Appointee process from the Universal Credit local authority bulletin UC3/2018 -
We are working on improving the Corporate Appointee process however, as an interim measure we have implemented a process that allows us to successfully deal with claimants on a case by case basis. The improvements are as follows:
- inclusion of National Insurance numbers on the payment schedule by the end of 2018
- an improved telephony claim process where we now ask that Corporate Appointees make all claims for their customer(s) using the DWP UC Freephone number 0800 328 5644 – this will enable the claim to be set up as a telephony claim and agree alternative contact methods with the Corporate Appointee – this will remove the need for Corporate Appointees to set up multiple email addresses
- new ways of working between the National Visiting team and UC Operations which is only used where a claimant has either a corporate appointee in place or where the claimant has special circumstances such as being in a secure unit and unable to attend the jobcentre
- where the claim has not been made via the telephony route, local DWP staff will identify these cases – if a Corporate Appointee has a specific customer issue, they should contact their local Jobcentre Service Improvement lead (SIL)
Our recent experience does not indicate that much improvement has been made. We have had a couple of successful phone claims but a WRO has had to work closely with Jobcentre staff and has had to push things on, and insist that Support Group claimants do not need medcerts etc etc.
The process appears to be ad hoc at best, indeed nobody is clear what the process is. This sort of thing should have been thought through and problems resolved years ago.
I am doing some work, along with Dan Manville as the other WR input, with the Association of Public Authority Deputies (APAD) through their UC working group. There are a few different strands of work going on; the sub group I’m part of is looking at a “best practice” area on the new APAD website. This will we hope include examples of what helpful agreements corporate appointees are getting with local JCs.
The one general “improvement” DWP have announced, i.e. guidance that all corporate appointee claims are to be made by phone is not in fact helpful at all. Our LA Deputy team will be getting individual email addresses for clients where a UC claim needs to be made and we see this as a much better option than a phone claim. Having the online account is useful for the team and they all felt the online claim process is a good option for them.
Our local JCs have agreed that ID verification can be done by email where possible but I think we are only able to do that in Northumberland because adult social care is delivered by the NHS in partnership with the LA so we are able to set up NHS.net emails which are secure between us and DWP.gsi email addresses.
Another LA locally has got their local JCs to agree to a named SPOC for corporate appointee clients in each JC and for interviews to be held by phone with the deputyship officer whenever possible.
We have found that local JC staff had no understanding of what corporate appointees do and an explanation about the range of work and the number of clients was well received and helped them understand why officers can’t just be nipping down to the JC for interviews and also why clients cannot attend interviews.
Anyway - the short version of that is, if you are in touch with your LA deputyship team, tell them to look out for the new APAD website sometime in the New Year.
We have a local agreement with JCP where we use the telephony system they do the claim we verify the documents at the local JCP office and so far it is working. We are an authority that cannot set up the emails and the costs to do this separately is too much when we are facing huge budget cuts.
MY concern is that each authority is doing their own thing.
I attended the APAD meeting with the DWP back in February when Martin was the Chair and at that meeting it was submitted that the number of clients many of us have under appointeeship/ deputyship and those on DROB accounts it would not be viable to have many hundreds of accounts set up.
I hope the working group is taking into account the views of all LA’s as I am aware we have not been asked to contribute any information into how we are managing claims.
We have a local agreement with JCP where we use the telephony system they do the claim we verify the documents at the local JCP office and so far it is working. We are an authority that cannot set up the emails and the costs to do this separately is too much when we are facing huge budget cuts.
MY concern is that each authority is doing their own thing.
I attended the APAD meeting with the DWP back in February when Martin was the Chair and at that meeting it was submitted that the number of clients many of us have under appointeeship/ deputyship and those on DROB accounts it would not be viable to have many hundreds of accounts set up.
I hope the working group is taking into account the views of all LA’s as I am aware we have not been asked to contribute any information into how we are managing claims.
The working group is still very much in its infancy and gathering information. I think all we want is for corporate appointees to have a choice between telephone and online claims. I understand that APAD regional reps have been asked to contact members about the working group. In the meantime there is an email for members to report issues which I will send you by DM. I need to get it from our Deputyship team manager so I’ll send it on asap.
How do you manage the UC claims once made- is it all phone contact or do you get actual letters?
Hi Rosie
We receive an award letter, although at present we are still awaiting information who the case manager is so that we can contact them will relevant information.
A new development has been that a client getting CB ESA and UC top up now has received an ESA50 and a UC50 so we have a situation where she could be asked to attend 2 different medical assessments with a potential for 2 different outcomes.