DWP mess up Community Care Grant

[emmaf01]

I am always astounded by the sheer level of lunacy the DWP can manage but this time they have outdone themselves.

 

I've recently spent a lot of time doing the hospital "revolving door" dance. In and out, day and night, then in for over two weeks.

 

The hospital had to have my husband in twice a day generally. He is my carer at home and they were leaving me for over a week saying they couldn't provide the right food for me, so he had to bring it in.

 

Also they left me for over a week with no working pain relief and in agony, waiting to see the acute pain team to sort it out. So my husband was there, trying to get me help, fighting with all his might.

 

As well as this, he was trying to care for our disabled son (aged 7) who was getting unstable just by what he was experiencing with me being in hospital, never mind what he saw when he tried to visit me.

 

As we are on IS, we were advised to apply for a Community Care Grant. There is no direct public transport from our home to the hospital, we don't have a car and my husband went through every penny we had on taxis, phone calls, getting our son to a place to be when he couldn't see the state of me in hospital.

 

Then I was told I was being discharged but would have to see a surgeon two weeks later and further away, also with no transport there- further taxi costs.

 

In these two weeks since I left hospital (occassionally:)) I have had to go back and forth to the GP, nurses to dress pressure sores and the hospital almost every day. Some days all our food money was just swallowed by getting me back and forth for health needs. This is only going to continue for the forseeable future until I get surgery, but we have to wait for the PCT to approve funding to travel to a specialist surgeon.

 

So my husband got some help with the forms and extra details and his elderly aunt sent it off by post. We found out today she even paid by special delivery secretly as she knew how bad things are.

 

Today we got a large envelope back from the DWP containing the form my husband completed. The envelope was addressed to me, not my husband who completed the form.

 

With it was a compliments slip from Inverness BDC- funny as we sent it to one in Liverpool where we live.

 

The compliments, from Inverness was typed but not signed. Enjoy.

Unfortunately we were not able to make an award on the enclosed recent application for a Community Care Grant, from Mr K***** D***** (not my husband's name) as you are his appointee and have not signed the application.

 

We would however point out to you that Mr D****** (still not me or my husband) is not in receipt of a Qualifying Benefit and thus cannot be considered for a Community Care Grant.

 

L****** S*******

SF Decision Maker

1/6/11

 

So the form enclosed has nothing to do with Mr D from Inverness. It is in the name of my husband, is filled in correctly, sent special delivery to the correct Liverpool Office- we have track and trace. We are in receipt of Income Support so do qualify.

 

How does this go all the way to Inverness? How do they mix this up this much? Who is Mr D?

 

If we weren't suffering so much right now, with no money for food because I have to spend it being in and out of hospitals, this would almost be funny.

 

They got this form on the 26th May and instead of processing it urgently messed it up so much. I can't even begin to complain about this.

[ErikaPNP]

Hello Emma.

 

Sorry you have had to wait so long for a response.

 

As I'm sure you are aware, disclosing another person's details to you is a data protection issue. You - or your husband - should raise this with the office who sent you the information. Send a letter of complaint outlining what you have said here, sending copies (not original, keep that in case you need it later) of the information they sent to you. Send it for the attention of the complaints team, and copy your own benefit delivery centre into it.

 

In regard to your claim form going to Inverness, it should be dealt with by Belle Vale but on occasions when benefit delivery centres are innundated with claims they do occasionally send them out to other offices to avoid a backlog and delay in a decision.

 

There is no direct entitlement to a CCG because of receipt of a qualifying benefit; that is just one part of the criteria satisfied but even so, this part of the information that they have sent to you is incorrect - they say you are not in receipt of a qualifying benefit when clearly you are.

 

The only possible reason I can think of for them returning the form to you for a signature (if indeed you didn't sign it), is if you are named on the IS claim as the claimant and your husband as the partner. I understand that the form has to be signed by the person who is named as the claimant on the qualifying benefit claim. But again, they have given you someone else's name and have also revealed that this person has an appointee and that he is not in receipt of a qualifying benefit. Not good.

 

I hope you are feeling better soon. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[emmaf01]

I will copy, ring, sign myself in addition to my husband- though I was too ill to even sign when he did it. Never knew that one- wish they had actually told us that when they sent it back. Thanks Erika.

 

The fact of giving us no reason to return the form, but poor Mr D's information, just shocked me beyond measure, as an ex-DWP worker.

[Life-Goes-On]

As a side issue, are you claiming travelling costs?

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Illorinjured/DG_10018959

[ErikaPNP]

Yes. It's a data protection issue. In fact, I would go so far as to send another copy (lots of copies!) marked for the attention of the security advisor/officer/whatever they call themself these days! I don't know the inns and outs of this but I believe that the disclosure of someone else's information would be something which would need to be logged as a security incident which the security personnel should be made aware of and look into. There are others who may know more about this. I'm sure DWP have specific security officers for data breaches.

[flumps1976]

We have a security officer and specialist team who cover the district area.

Personally I only ever came across one case (which is still one too many in my opinion) where we had 2 sisters with exactly the same initials and their NINO were also nearly identical (only last two numbers were 1 number apart e.g 98 &99), long story short.... both were claiming JSA, one found a job and wrong claim was closed and somehow wrong letters were sent out to the wrong person.

With regards to a previous link for claiming for travel costs I am more than happy to be corrected but the last I knew about this scheme is that travel costs can only be claimed for pre booked appointments as the finance teram only pay when they have proof of the qulifying benefit and hospital letter proving that attendance was required.

There were a lot of changes recently regarding Social Fund and work has been moved around the country to try to avoid unecessary delays wherever possible.

[Nystagmite]

With regards to a previous link for claiming for travel costs I am more than happy to be corrected but the last I knew about this scheme is that travel costs can only be claimed for pre booked appointments as the finance teram only pay when they have proof of the qulifying benefit and hospital letter proving that attendance was required.

 

Direct Gov says:

 

You may be able to get financial help from the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme if you're on a low income, need NHS treatment at a hospital, other NHS centre or private clinic and have been referred by an NHS hospital consultant, doctor or dentist.

 

There are rules about what transport costs they will and won't pay. You would be expected to use concessions or promotions. For example, I have a disabled persons' bus pass and would be expected to use that. They don't seem to care about how long it takes to get there either - I had this discussion with my hospital cash office. I told them it would take at least an hour for me to get to the hospital and then there's the waiting around - my appointment was at 6.45pm and the estimated time was one hour. I was not willing (it was pitch black by then) to risk my safety.

 

I am tempted to see what they say on Tuesday - there's no transport (unless I take a detour into town) that goes anywhere near the eye infirmary.

[flumps1976]

You can claim at the NHS hospital or clinic at the time of your appointment. You'll be paid back immediately in cash, when you show any of the following:

• proof of a qualifying benefit (like an award notice)
  
• a tax credit exemption certificate (you'll get this automatically if you qualify)
  
• a certificate showing you qualify for the NHS Low Income Scheme
  

This is the part I meant, you claim back the expenses at your appointment, as far as I am aware it is for prebooked appointments only, not if you have been admitted in an emergency.