Dwp not acting

[chalkiessoup]

My wife and I are both retired.My wife is disabled and receives DLA.I receive Carers Allowance.

My wife also receives pension credit(savings) and has two small private pensions.I also receive a private pension(income drawdown).

In December 2012 I had a 5 year pension review and my pension was slashed from £560 per month

to £250 per month due to new GAD rates being imposed.

We advised DWP of a change in circumstances on 20th dec 2012 and despite phoning them every 2 weeks we have received nothing.

Our meagre savings have now been used up and we are now worrying about paying our bills particularly the mortgage which is £515 per month.

I have raised a complaint with the DWP and now don't know what else to do.

Can anyone advise.

Thank you.

[EagerElephant]

I expect you are in an assessed income period which means they only re-assess you every 5 years.

 

Look at this link - http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/specialist-guides/technical-guidance/pc10s-guide-to-pension-credit/assessed-income-period/

 

As you can see if your income goes down you can ask for the award to be recalculated taking into account the reduced pension.

 

I would ring DWP one more time and ask for a manager and then tell them you are going to your MP if nothing changes.

 

Do you have an Age Concern help centre near you (usually in Age Concern shops) as they will be able to ring up on your behalf?

 

Do you get help with your mortgage from the Pension Service because you are on Pension Credit?

[chalkiessoup]

Thanks for your comments EagerElephant.

We did speak to a manager more than 2 weeks ago and were told that it would be sorted in 5-10 days.

We last spoke to them on Thursday 4th April and were told that they would ring back.That didn't happen.We rang again on Friday but were told by the London office that the Swansea office were on strike.Great!

Will try again tomorrow and failing a satisfacory answer we will be contacting our MP.

Will post further news as and when.

[Guest]

Yes please let us know how you get on. I hope your MP is better than mine, I wrote to her 31st January about the atos and assessment millarkey.....she replied quick enough to say she was contacting the appropriate minister and would get back to me...I am still waiting, over 2 months now. I sent a "nudge" email 3 weeks ago, reply was not heard yet and will get back to you when I have.....just great.

[chalkiessoup]

At last the matter has been resolved.

Had a call on Tuesday 9th April from the manager of the complaints dept.She was very nice and apologised profusely saying that this situation should never have occurred and further steps would be taken with the people involved.

Sounds like somebody is for the high jump!

Anyway,we were told that backdated funds should be in our account on Monday and paperwork should be received in the post the same day.

I checked our account today and the money is in there = yippee ! Postman also brought the brown envelope.

It's such a relief to finally get this sorted.

[Guest]

Great news and well done!