Caught in a loop to make a fresh claim

[trebormoinet]

My son has found himself homeless in London and been trying to claim benefits, I have tried doing it online but it because he is homeless it will not let him go any further and tells hims to ring a freephone number and ignore the message telling him to claim online.

 

When he got through the person on the other end told him to make a claim online and put NFA in the drop down list but I cannot see that option anywhere.

 

Can anyone shed light on the best way he can sort this, he has been to the local office but all he gets is to do it online.

[unclebulgaria67]

Perhaps a Job Centre plus has a computer he can use to make the application and if necessary he can ask for help.

[theronstar]

My Jobcentre no longer has computers. I can't speak for the others.

 

Can he approach St Mungos or suchlike?

[speedfreek]

Try these people http://www.shp.org.uk

 

London is quite fragmented for support/charities and what each council offers as services.

[speedfreek]

Just to add to my previous post!

 

His 1st stop should be the Local Council offices and their Housing Options Team or whatever his council calls it.

 

They will probably not offer him accommodation as he's in a non priority group.

They will how ever get him on the Housing Register.... if he can wait 10 years he might get something.

But they should offer him the deposit service (Council fronts the deposit for a private let), may have lists of landlords to approach and may if he's really lucky have a Welfare Rights service to help with the DWP benefit issues.

 

The SHP are well worth a call as they can help with computer access - I know from experience that their Vauxhall office has a computer room for use by homeless people.

 

He also needs to raise a complaint with the DWP about being refused the ability to make a claim for benefit! His claim for benefit should start from the day he tried to apply for it. Not from the date they actually made him to jump through hoops before they accepted it. So when he makes an accepted claim he needs to ask for the benefit to be backdated to the original contact date.

 

This complaint should also be copied to their local MP as it will be dealt with quicker with their help.

 

Whilst he might not want to fight the good fight he will win this at a First Tier Tribunal and that money is the difference between sink or swim!