Authorisation

I just need a rant….

Claimant with complicated circumstances which included needing to update address.  Rather than phone due to the time it takes to get an answer I took written authorisation from the claimant and wrote to DWP advising of change of address and other issues.

Phoned them today as claim stopped and claimant hasn’t received any notification.  Can’t speak to me despite written authorisation!  And can’t change address based on letter and written authorisation as they need to speak to claimant.

Get the claimant on the phone and he does security.  ‘Are you sure you live at that house number?  We have a record of you living at a different house number in that street.’  Quite apart from - thought the address couldn’t be changed without the claimant phoning up - not getting it right based on wherever the information did come from.

So here we have - vulnerable claimant who can’t manage the DWP without support expected to sit on the phone for an hour at a time to ‘go through security’ having had claim suspended without any notification.  And no point expecting him to be able to deal with it by himself as it took me speaking to 2 bods at DWP to get as far as we did in a call lasting 1 hour and 9 minutes (mostly waiting time but at least 20 minutes on the actual call).

Bearing in mind that all my contact details were on the letter sent I’d have hoped for at least the common courtesy of a call advising they were going to ignore it (so far as they choose to because they’ve acted on other information in the letter).  Asking too much?  Obviously.

The thing that amuses me (in a “otherwise I’d cry” sort of way) is that they should be welcoming our involvement and making it easier for us to assist claimants rather than putting road blocks in the way. We are, in theory, on the same side. We, as advisers, want to ensure that claimants are getting the benefits that they are entitled to, that those who have difficult navigating complex systems are supported to give timely and accurate information to the DWP and that the whole thing is dealt with as efficiently with as little client stress as possible. Which, in theory, is the same thing that the DWP want (stop sniggering at the back!).

Yet the DWP spend their time making it harder for clients and those that assist them in enabling the DWP to do their, apparent, job of administering the welfare benefits. Which makes the DWPs job harder and means they have to invest more time and resources dealing with complex cases, which means that people fall in the gaps and end up destitute (or worse).

Mad.