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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Covid-19 issues  →  Thread

Verify UC

davidsmithp1000
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Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project

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With Neil Couling tweeting that the ‘build’ has stood up well, presumably we have 500,000 start dates. -

And so, what is the current process to verify ID and get an advance paid?

Job centres closed, 100,000 people on hold on the phones all trying to do the exact same thing.

There needs to be some guidance published on this quick!

Unless anyone knows otherwise?

Ruth Knox
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Vauxhall Law Centre

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Verification and also the Habitual Residence Test. We will have many people (I have at least one client) who have completed the claim and verification process on line and are exempt or would pass the HRT but are being asked to phone the same number to arrange for a telephone appointment for an HRT.

Daphne
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In the evidence session last week - https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-rights/news/item/verification-process-for-universal-credit-is-facing-capacity-challenges-as-477000-claims-are-made-in-just-nine-days - Peter Schofield said they were starting to do outbound calls for verification.

On Friday I advised someone who had just submitted an online claim but couldn’t get through on the phone to write in their journal for a call back to do verify and it happened.

We have asked for urgent guidance to be published on it though.

Pete at CAB
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Welfare Benefits Adviser’ for Citizens Advice Cornwall

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I have been advising cl’s to make a note in their Journal to say that Verify won’t work and that they can’t get through on the phone and that they can provide photos or scans of ID docs if DWP can open up the account to accept attachments if that would help.

All the calls I have had this morning have been about Verify not working. The problems with Verify have been well known for a long time (three out of the five providers left the scheme on 23/03/20 which probably hasn’t helped) and it was entirely foreseeable that the current crisis would expose the flaws in a major way. It is surely a matter of urgency that an alternative is provided as soon as possible

Atif Kaudri
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Maggie's Centre, Oxford

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I have received the following message from our Partnership Manager about initial ID checks and initial interviews this morning.

“Hi Everyone

I am getting a few queries about how long it is taking us to make initial ID checks and initial interviews with new claims to UC.

The process now is that we are automatically calling people to do these initial interviews over the phone – although the online system still says that they need to call us to make an appointment they actually do not need to do this – we will pick up all cases and call them – it they keep trying to call us they will just tie up our lines and cause us further work which we want to try to avoid

So we are calling people as quickly as we can, we just need people to bear with us.”

Daphne
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Henri Krishna from CPAG Scotland has just passed on the following information -

Just had call from contact at DWP Scotland who’s said:

- RTI feed now set up so as claims come in they are allocated to a work coach or JCP staff
- A note goes on the claimant’s journal that they don’t need to call but telling them what info to get together in prep for a call from DWP
- Verification done by WC/JCP calling claimant, using biographical system take all other required info in same call (eg rent, children, other income, etc)
- CC accepted automatically by DWP staff and put as such on system
- advance can then be applied for
- not closing any claims at present, whether due to no contact or RTI earnings being too high
- working on basis of trust and will revisit claims in future (once pandemic over) if possible fraud
- new ‘end-to-end’ approach to NSJSA claims

Henri asks that if any of that is not working in practice as they want feedback - please send to CPAG’s early warning system -
England and Wales or Scotland

[ Edited: 30 Mar 2020 at 02:56 pm by Daphne ]