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Full service online journal
I’ve just helped a client request a review of her claimant commitment by asking for this via the online journal. The client made me aware that if you tick the option ‘message to work coach’, then the message you leave will disappear once the work coach has reviewed and replied to this message. She showed me examples of this on her Journal. I logged the request in the section ‘work search’ instead in the hope that it would stay in the journal log, but I do not know if this will be the case.
It concerns me that there will be no ‘log’ and therefore ‘audit trail’ of messages exchanged between customer and work coach, especially if the customer is raising important issues. One example was that she had tried to discuss the work search requirements during half-term last week with her child off school.
Any views? Experience?
If only there was a ‘test and learn’ approach to the roll out whereby groups representing claimants could have been shown the functionality of UC online and learned or discussed the implications with DWP before it was rolled out .......
Funny that in a response to an FOI, (FOI 4843) DWP said “Universal Credit full service accounts can currently be accessed indefinitely. “
I’ve emailed to ask them to clarify whether they meant ALL the account….
(The query was about journal entries)
Whenever I’ve used the “message my work coach” option on UC, the record has remained. The trouble I’ve had is that it literally is a message to the work coach - so if you are asking for an MR, to complain or to query something the work coach will usually respond saying “I have no idea, you will have to phone up”
On the topic of things being deleted, one thing I have learnt is that if someone makes a claim and then re-claims for whatever reason; the journal for the old claim will be inaccessible. I have a client who made one claim, failed RTR and MR’d the refusal whilst making a new claim on a change in circumstances. The MRN was chucked into the journal for the old claim which my client couldn’t access. We had to ring up and ask them to copy and paste it into the new journal.
Whenever I’ve used the “message my work coach” option on UC, the record has remained. The trouble I’ve had is that it literally is a message to the work coach - so if you are asking for an MR, to complain or to query something the work coach will usually respond saying “I have no idea, you will have to phone up”
On the topic of things being deleted, one thing I have learnt is that if someone makes a claim and then re-claims for whatever reason; the journal for the old claim will be inaccessible. I have a client who made one claim, failed RTR and MR’d the refusal whilst making a new claim on a change in circumstances. The MRN was chucked into the journal for the old claim which my client couldn’t access. We had to ring up and ask them to copy and paste it into the new journal.
Just dealing with this exact same issue. Claim terminated as she apparently failed unspecified commitment despite having no outstanding to-do list. New claim submitted before I was able to get out to visit her and now full journal history gone. Lady at DWP couldn’t get her head around it and didn’t believe us for most of the conversation. Finally agreed to make a request to the case manager to send out copy of journal…...waiting with baited breath!
If she has failed to do something on claimant commitment, why claim terminated rather than a sanction applied?
Or has she failed to attend the initial ‘claimant commitment’ meeting.
I have now come across 3 claims closed very quickly after failing to attend the JC. I am looking into why they couldn’t be left open to give the person the opportunity to rearrange. And whether they count as ‘defective claim’ in which case there should be a window of opportunity of a month in which to correct the defect ????
That is exactly the question I have asked in the MR Sarah! She had been on UC since March 2016 and had a satisfactory telephone interview with her work coach literally 4 days before the claim was terminated which was marked on her journal. We are at a complete loss as to what has happened but trying to find answers is like cycling in custard.
Another was closed when my client (who was in intensive care in hospital and had it marked on their journal by their work coach) missed his commitments interview.
Everyday I think I have come up against the most crazy issue only to find that another day dawns a new even crazier one.