New refugees still have to arrange ID verification appointments at the JobCentre?

Hello, my clients are victims of torture and human trafficking, and I’m trying to help those who have been recently granted leave to remain and will still have their Home Office accommodation and support terminated. When making the UC claim, the online ID verification process (almost?) never works as the person has usually only just opened a bank account, doesn’t have credit history or NI contributions etc., and so they have to arrange a first appointment at the JobCentre to verify ID. It’s normally v quick to get through on the phone for this purpose specifically, but a client and I have been trying since Friday (3 hours then) and 2 hours today on hold to try and arrange this appointment so that her UC claim is actually submitted.

I don’t really want to advise her to go to the JobCentre to try and arrange the appointment in person, nor to go to an appointment once formally arranged, but there is currently no other mechanism to verify ID unless you can go through the online ID verification companies (like Experion). Does anyone have any advice on dealing with this?

Try your local DWP Partnership Manager perhaps (although others on here have been reporting similar delays in contact for obvious reasons).

Given the harsh edges of claiming UC, their best option might be to visit the JCP office though and take suitable precautions, just to get their claim up and running - it’s not ideal I grant you, but I can’t see the telephone service improving much in the current climate.

From Twitter, not a refugee but ...

Unbelievable… Universal Credit application must be verified by the Post Office to progress and he is 33 thousandth in the queue…. Based on his calculations it’ll take 27 days before he gets to No1! You’ve 4 weeks to verify otherwise you have to resubmit