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DWP re: Implicit consent and multiple customer enquiries
From latest issue of DWP’s Touchbase -
‘DWP recognises the huge support that customer representative organisations provide to its customers and claimants. There are times when these organisations need to contact the Department to get specific information about a customer that will help with the support they give them.
DWP follows a principle of ‘implicit consent’, and DWP staff have recently been reminded about this principle. When a customer has not given valid written authority, or they are not present to confirm consent, DWP staff will use their experience and judgement to decide if a caller has implicit consent to act on behalf of the customer, before providing any information.
Implicit consent is assumed where the caller meets these three criteria:
- They know basic information about the customer, for example, their national insurance number, date of birth or address
- They can quote facts about a person’s claim, or can quote from recent DWP correspondence with the customer
- They make enquiries that are consistent with the role of a genuine representative.Occasionally, customer representative organisations may ask for information about a number of customers in a single telephone call. This may be about a number of different DWP benefits or services. The Department has many different contact centres and helplines that have different access to customer information. Organisations need to be aware that DWP may not be able to provide all the information requested during a single call, especially if the enquiries are about different benefits. DWP’s telephony agents may signpost representatives to the best telephony service for the enquiry.
Where enquiries relate to a number of customers, representatives need to be aware that DWP will establish implicit consent separately for each customer.’
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/touchbase-ezine-february-2013.pdf
Just had a huge argument with the Disability and Carer’s Service.
All I wanted them to do is to send the client a review claim pack. I did not reveal to then whether it was an upwards or downwards application for reassessment.
They started with the following security questions
NI number - gave the right answer
Client’s name - gave the right answer
Date of birth - gave the right answer
Phone number - gave the right answer
address - gave the right answer
rates of DLA currently awarded - gave the right answer
they then went on to ask the date of the most recent letter from them to the claimant
(I didn’t know that one)
they then asked for the claimants bank account number
(Didn’t know that one either, but went on to inform them that i would not disclose that type of information over the phone)
They then said I had failed the security questions and would not speak to me about the claim.
I said I did not want to speak to them about the claim nor was I asking for any information from them - I said I just wanted them to send a review claim form out to the client.
They said they couldn’t as I had failed security.
They confirmed I was the named rep on their system.
I mentioned implied consent, they said they couldn’t do anything because I had failed security.
Seems to me a tad excessive, I had answered enough security questions to establish I was the rep to my mind.
Anyway, I have now sent a written request with signed authority for the review form.
But it all seems a bit jobsworth and total waste of my time.
aargh security questions…
i’m my mother’s appointed rep for benefits (she has alzheimers) and rang the pension service to give them the bank account details to send her pension to (having at long last also got my CoP deputyship)
i failed security - because i couldn’t tell them the date of her wedding anniversary. as i said, given that my dad died 50 years ago and i wasn’t even a twinkle in his eye when they got married, how woudl i know….
We’ve been here before.