Now I debt because I wasn't paid, feeling so down

[moreyoudoknow]

Haven't been able to pay a few bills and now not much left for food. NOT a thread asking for charity as I've great family but I do just want some advice on how I can push them to pay me my missing payments?!

Bloody carers allowance. They have missed two payments. Been chasing and chasing as

Finally discovered the reason they think it was the other day - I didn't sign one of the bits they sent off so stopped payment

I've asked what I could do and they said they'd sent to decision maker and issue an emergency payment if possible.

That was Thursday. It's now Monday and still nothing

On the line waiting to get through again. Why is it so hard?

I don't mean to be rude, but it's not that it's actually hard, it's that you didn't do what was needed. If you'd filled in all the paperwork correctly you'd presumably have been paid correctly, so I think your anger is misdirected here.

That said, I completely understand how hard this must be. Can you get a food bank referral to tide you over, and call the missed bills to fill them in? You'll often find that if you can get through to an actual person they can be flexible on payment times, rather than just defaulting to angry red letters.

Unfortunately if you didn't sign the paperwork - then what are they supposed to do? You should
Of done it and sent it back. They are not at fault here you are.

The problem isn't that - I've waited 9 weeks. Because one signature was missed. I'm not being helped in anyway to rectify it. And I offered to send in a repeat etc

They said no. They were on the case. They'd sort it as an emergency. But 9 weeks later and nothing!

It isn't that they haven't paid. It's the fact 9 weeks have past and still nothing

I would imagine if you fail to complete paperwork correctly you go to the bottom of the heap as they focus on processing complete applications.

Across the board, all sectors of government are working incredibly slowly, due to COVID backlogs, huge demand, understaffing and chronic underfunding. The system is on it's knees and the focus will be on helping people rather than fixing people's mistakes. It takes a lot more time and manpower to chase up incomplete applications than it does to fulfil complete ones.

isnt carers every week? so hows it 2 payments yet 9 weeks?

But it's not nine weeks since your problem came to light, it's one full working day.

No it isn't. It's one full working day since I said they knew exactly what the problem was and how to fix it

I think you can opt to have it paid every 2 weeks? Mine is every 4. Think they ask when you do the forms

It isn't an application that I filled in

It's an earnings sheet

ah yes i see, i got mine every week and so do the others i know who get it so didnt realise it could be paid 4 weekly too

Does seem a bit weird - I forgot to sign one part of my maternity allowance forms and they returned it in the post almost immediately asking me to sign and send back.

@dawnc27 DH used to get CA, it is a weekly amount but like Child Benefit they roll up 4 weekly amounts and pay every 4 weeks. They are slow to sort issues, DH forgot to cancel his claim when his wage increased and it took US chasing THEM for about 6 weeks to set up repayments (then they missed the first one).

Whether it's an application or earnings sheet is just semantics. You didn't do what was required.

Unfortunately, you did not complete the earning sheet correctly. I used to be in a job where payments were processed once a month on a Thursday afternoon at 4pm. Claim sheets had to be submitted by Wednesday evening. We could not process any form if not complete and would have to request a new completed form. If you did not have the completed form in by 4pm you went into the following months payment batch. Our system did not allow for one off payments to be processed.

But their system does allow for one off payments/emergency payments.

And, in addition to that, I didn't fill it in incorrectly. It's just a missing signature at the end. Though they admit I signed the front.

Right, that's correct. But 9 weeks, without any payment. The issue here isn't that they didn't pay me first off. It's that it's been 9 weeks and still no sign of it being rectified

For a missing signature... 9 weeks. More understandable if incorrect figures were put down as that's confusing. But this is much simpler surely

I get it carers are a nightmare

I think you're seriously overestimating how much time they have to chase up other people's mistakes. The system is overburdened - when your earnings sheet came in incomplete, it likely just got put in an "incomplete" pile, rather than sent to someone to call you & get you to fix it, because there simply aren't enough resources to go running around after incomplete forms.

I would put money on the Emergency payment coming out of a different system like ours. There was an entire different process to arrange that payment and very few people had the authority to issue it.