dss - want to scream

have no been waiting weeks for them to sort out joint claim to be told today that we have not given them the right info. we know we have as we filled out the change of circumstances form at the start of august. since then we have filled out 3 more forms saying who lives in the house and how we are related. so today we have completed a new change of circumstances form.

the annoying thing is that they have stopped martin's benefit but not mine and that we are now major behind with all our bills again as we had no child tax credit for 3.5 weeks either. i can really understand why some people dont tell the dss when things change if this is the mess they make of it all.

to top it off we have had our rent and council tax benefits stopped and have got our housing association moaning at us but cant do anymore until the dss sort it out. have felt like screaming today but think i would have just got escorted out of the office

sue

Awwww hunni, your not alone on this one, as I resently split with my OH Im living on what money I still have, as I cant claim anything until they sort my claim out, hes moved out over a week ago and I dont have an interview with the jobcentre to get the claim processed until wednesday
Then its going to be another 2weeks before they sort it out,if not longer
Sometimes they really take the biscuit, on top of that I have the csa on my back trying to get me to take my ex for money when we have made a mutual agreement

sorry, posted twice by accident

Really sorry to hear this. I work for DWP and always feel bad when i hear stuff about honest hard working people losing out like this & having trouble with their benefits. I know some offices are completely useless (a shame cos it makes all of us look bad), dont know their head from their a*ses and are hundreds (some thousands!) of claims/ changes behind!
All you can do is keep calling them up and checking if they have everything and keep pushing them. Try and get through to a benefits processor as they usually deal with the actual claims rather than the people on the telephones in the call centres. Hope it gets sorted soon for you.

P.S would just like to add that i am not part of a useless office! We are doing all our own work plus have taken an entire area off another office and we're taking excess work from a further 2 different offices! Wish i could sort it out for you but i cant dont do anything tax/ child benefit related.

Hope you get it sorted soon sue.

I worked for the DWP for nearly 34 years & when I made my Incapacity Benefit claim after my Dad died in Feb this year, it took 9 letters of complaint before in July they finally sorted out my claim, I had been receiving reminders to send in medical evidence regularly so they couldn't blame the computer.

Eventually I wrote directly to the Manager(private in confidence)of the command that paid the Incapacity(I used to work in the office & though a friend found out who was currently in the position)

The letter was passed on to Customer Services & my luck was in because it landed on the desk of an ex colleague, who managed to sort it out via the section team leader(who I also know)in two days.

I had to claim Council Tax benefit after my Dad died & when they finally sorted out my Incapacity Benefit that stopped & I got a letter from the Local Authority to say as I was now WORKING(excuse me ?)I had to pay full Council Tax, I rang the Benefits Section of the Local Authority to ask if they could tell me where I was supposed to be working as it was news to me. A week later they rang back"Oh Sorry we should have asked you for details of your Incapacity Benefits-don't know where the working bit came from"

My ex colleague who works in Customer Services told me if I thought the Jobcentre Plus was in a mess whilst I was there I was lucky I wasn't there now as it was far far worse-they had 4 extra staff to deal with complaints about non payment of benefits which were running into hundreds every day !

I'm so glad I am out of there

thanks for all your good wishes.

thing that annoys me is martin just sits and takes it where as i would be jumping up and down on the phone every single day until it was sorted out. just want to be able to go food shopping and sort the bills out and not worry about it all.

sue

Dont get me started about benefits, i lost my job 18th July and i'm still waiting for them to sort my claim out.

I got a letter yesterday saying some info was missing so they cannot process my claim for housing benefit, i'm not even claiming housing benefit

Its a shambles!!!!! I am lucky i had some redundancy pay or i'd have nothing to live on!

I got fired for being ill over 2 months ago, I've had to live off my father as my ex cleared my savings. I get sick pay, from last week, but not housing benefit yet, or income support, and I lost my apartment that I was renting coz I was behind with the rent

I think it's shocking how long it takes for these claims to be processed. I've been waiting for over 2 months after appealing against a decision when I was turned down for D.L.A. I first applied away back when, it's so long ago I've forgotten. My sister has just lost her husband who was terminally ill and she had applied for attendance all. It was applied for in Jan 2007. She finally got it in Aug and he died 3 weeks later. Now although they back dated it, it was more needed when they were having to go backwards and forwards to hospitals sometimes 3 times a week. Thank goodness they weren't hard up and needing it to make him comfortable or for help with nursing him in his last weeks of life. He is sorely missed and the money means nothing now. We would rather have him back with us.