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Attendance Allowance - Change to Claim Form Requests
Don’t know if anyone else was aware of this, however the Attendance Allowance helpline stated today that claim forms can no longer be requested under the Special Rules for Terminally Ill people. I assume this policy started literally today as I requested a few yesterday with no issue. I made three calls to the 0345 6056055 number in the space of five minutes, resulting in the following shambles:
- Call 1: “We no longer do special rules. All forms are now going to be sent out in 7-10 working days”
- Call 2: (Querying call 1): “Yes, that’s right, it’s a new policy, but it’s actually all forms sent out in 48 hours”
- Call 3: (Clarifying call 2) “I don’t know about that, the form will be with Mrs ***** in 7-10 days”
- Head>Desk
Obviously we can simply print off AA claim forms and take them out, but I prefer phone requests as it usually means 3-4 days worth of money by logging the request immediately rather than the wait to fill it in and it’s arrival at Wolverhampton.
Does anyone know if it’s definitely 48 hours, or 7-10 days?
We have come across the same issue over the past couple of weeks. To make matters worse we are now seeing a significant delay in receiving claim packs. We have only received one of the dozen or so that we have ordered compared to a 3 or 4 day turn around period before this change.
I have asked for clarification from a local DWP contact but said person is having trouble getting any information.
The majority of AA claims we make are under Special Rules so this is a real concern.
We are going to download forms and submit claims with a covering letter requesting that the date we made the original call for the claim pack be treated as the date of claim.
I’d be interested to hear if anyone else is having the same problem.
I’ve requested quite a few forms since the system change and timescales now appear to be a bit of a halfway house between previous special rules timescales, and “normal” 7-10 day timescales.
IE the last few I’ve requested have all arrived within about 3-4 working days of telephone call.