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DWP losing post
I sense an abbreviation coming ( see other thread )
I was thinking about this.
Two more examples this week of letters allegedly not being received by DWP. Judging by how few people have responded to my original post, is this not a widespread problem for advisers?
Neil we have experienced a lot of post going missing regardless if we send it directly to the Benefit Centre dealing with it rather than wolverhampton. I mean we’ve sent first class signed for and even that has gone missing much to my frustration. It is as tony says you just get used to it. After these annoying experience I have taken to scanning the documents and sending them by email and by post that way they do arrive. Might be worth a try
I suspect some of us register it as more of a problem than others.
My perspective is that provided I have retained copies of documentation then the post is not my problem and I can’t proceed in every case by using futile things like recorded delivery that actually don’t assist in any way as I would fry my brain if I tried to address all the things that could go wrong. Special delivery is what is actually needed but I could never justify the cost of that in a work environment.
If the post becomes an issue, recorded delivery is not and never will be the solution. As has already been said, the law provides more than enough of the solutions we need.
I suspect the whole recorded delivery thing is founded on
- a misunderstanding of what recorded delivery is, and,
- a misguided attempt to give advisers/clients some sense of control over that which is truly out of our hands.
It’s the same mindset that demands read receipts for emails. They prove no more than something arrived in an Inbox. They don’t provide proof it stayed there (email can be marked as spam; appear in an Inbox for a fraction of a second and then move to a Junk folder) and they don’t provide proof it was read. Still, there’s a percentage of advisers who will always persist with such things without ever understanding that, provided you don’t receive a non-delivery email, it has always been delivered.
Neil, it has always been a problem for me, in different employments and with different benefit centres. I cannot remember ever getting a response to any general postal correspondence without having to make a complaint.
Exceptions were letters of appeal and letters sent directly to the appeals section (after an appeal had been acknowledged), but correspondence to appeals section sent earlier this year has not been acknowledged, either.
I cant say much that has not been said already but would like to echo the comments of others. I have tried the normal Royal Mail service, the Recorded Delivery service and Registered Post. I have many examples where evidence is held confirming the mail has arrived at its destination, whether it be the Benefit Delivery Centre or any other alternative address, and even a signature of the person receiving it BUT this rarely changes anything - they still claim it has not been received by the team that needs the mail. I also have an email address which they “allow” me to use for mail in exceptional circumstances but have recently had the cheek to ask that I stop using this facility as much as I have been, even though they know themselves that mail frequently goes missing. Needless to say their request has fell on deaf ears….
Feelings of - this will never improve, How can this happen so often, Why Wolverhampton ?, Frustrated, Angry, The public deserve better .......etc etc
Yes all of the above !!!!!!
Spoke to someone on the main contact centre number yesterday who said that since the switch to the Wolverhampton address, post is not only going missing but also taking significantly longer to be forwarded to the relevant BC. I was chasing up on an ESA MR request which I posted 1st class on 29/1. It wasn’t logged as received at the local BC until 21/2. Says it all really (suppose I should be thankful that unusually, at least it actually reached its desination).
Spoke to someone on the main contact centre number yesterday who said that since the switch to the Wolverhampton address, post is not only going missing but also taking significantly longer to be forwarded to the relevant BC. I was chasing up on an ESA MR request which I posted 1st class on 29/1. It wasn’t logged as received at the local BC until 21/2. Says it all really (suppose I should be thankful that unusually, at least it actually reached its desination).
Yes, one of our care managers who had contacted ESA dept about the potentially slightly late return of an ESA50 was told not to worry about it as a) its taking longer for post to work through the system and b) they have no way of knowing when it actually arrived at Wolverhampton so cant say whether something was late or not.
i’ve had periods where i’ve become incredibly annoyed at post going “missing” or “not received” and others where i’ve become expectant that it will happen
in the last couple of weeks i’ve taken the decision that whenever i now write to any DWP office or several of the bigger HB offices, i now send two of each letter.
it’s ridiculous that it’s come to this but i think i can more likely say in the future that on the balance of probablities the chances of both letters not being received at their office is pretty unlikely and maybe i can show that it’s more likely them being useless at dealing with received post than the postal service are at delivering
We have had lot’s of problems with DLA, seems since they sent all child cases to Birmingham and new claims, as was, to Cardiff. The latest one we complained, as they also lost the claim form, found when we complained, and then said that they had not received our letter of appeal, again on complaining this was found. It seems from the chat I had with the officer from the DLA unit that the form and letter had just been filed and not actioned…..yeah right.
....And don’t forget , as from Monday, the 73 telephone numbers that are in operation to contact for the Working age benefits sections will reduce to 1 number….
I must say lately it had been easier in our area to get through on the phone but now visions of similar problems as the Tax Credit line and postal receipt / scanning are becoming reality ..
I sent a MR request in on 4th, it’s still not received. Its a 15 minute walk from “Post Handling Site B” to the BDC…