To expect the DWP to send the correct information to the correct people FYI I'm not and never have been dead.

[onlyjoking9329]

I'm rather cross, so I may well be unreasonable
So today the postie brings a letter from the DWP.
It is addressed to my son, he has ASD so I'm authorised to deal with paperwork etc on his behalf.

Letter says.....
Dear Master joking
We understand you were acting for, or have recently been appointed to act for the late Mrs onlyjoking.
Were are sorry to hear that mrs onlyjoking has died.
Apparently they owe me some backdated money from before I died, and would like to pay it to him.

I'm not very pleased, either DWP have cocked it up, which is not unheard of.
Or someone MIL has informed the DWP that I am in fact dead.
I will be having an interesting phone conversation on Monday.

Does anyone have ideas of what I should say to them, other than swearing.

So, they have accepted that I'm not dead Phew! They had me wondering.

He said that the member of staff who sent the letter has gone off sick, likely for a long time, he said there had been previous issues and incidents. The staff member will be given further training on their return. He's not sure why they did it or if they were instructed to do it by a phonecall or letter.
He is going to send me a letter of apology explanation and action
My money will be reinstated, but not as quickly as they able to stop it, no surprise there then!
Depending on the letter I may involve my MP.

Glad they have agreed you are not dead Seriously stressful though! Hope money gets sorted quickly!

I think you should involve your MP if you have time to.

It's just wrong that they would send a letter/stop benefits on the grounds of anything less than a signed death certificate imo.

Somebody serious fucked up here.

I found the link below, which shows just how much evidence you are supposed to provide to notify departments, including DWP, of a death. At some point you have to provide a lot of detail that the MIL won't have.

www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once

I'm actually surprised they would take it that you had died without having seen a death certificate.

Yes benefits now all ok, fingers crossed.
The letter of explanation and apology Below

Thank you for contacting us regarding sensitive correspondence sent in error to your son, for whom you act as appointee.
Having examined the circumstances surrounding the error I can confirm that it was a genuine, if most unfortunate mistake.
For this and any distress caused to you and or your son, I apologise on behalf of the staff member concerned and the department.
If you are still in possession of the letter I would be grateful if you could return it in the pre-paid reply envelope.

The staff member concerned is currently absent from work however on their return, the matter will be discussed and any remedial action taken to ensure there is no re-occurrence of the error.
Please be assured that we take such incidents very seriously, The Department for Work and Pensions is committed to providing an accurate and efficient service to its customers.
I am sorry that you have clearly not recieved the standard of service that you are entitled to in this instance.

I note your concerns regarding where we obtained the erroneous date of death from, but I must assure you that this information was taken from another persons case in error and not from any false documentation regarding you or any of your family.

That's the jist of it, do I leave it at that and keep the letter, or speak to our MP? I'm not sure what they could do now.

don't send the letter back, they are trying to remove the evidence!

I won't be sending the letter back, It stinks of them covering their arses.

Oh OJ this is awful. I think I would be speaking to my MP about this as what if it had been your son who had opened it or someone else who is extremely vulnerable receives one like this and cannot cope the way you have?

As for your dh's mother, words fail me!

or just send them a copy back so that they can 'investigate' don't send the original

Send them a photocopy so that they can use that as evidence for an internal investigation/ or to wave in front of the face of the person who made the error when they deny it.

Photocopy the letter and send the original back to them, there is no reason at all for you not to do that, a photocopy won't be too expensive. if you don't send it back it could be used as an excuse.

Then speak to your MP and take the photocopy! There should not exist the means whereby a member of staff can 'by error' record you as dead using someone else's information AND they should not have sent a letter to your son.

They have massively screwed up and are trying to get away with it, which is what will happen if you do not involve your MP and don't send the letter back.

Keep the original as its actual evidence. Supply them with a photocopy.

Sorry it's taken me a while to come back, I still have their letter.
thou it may have pictures of penii and rude words
on it
But they've got copies of it on file I'm sure.

So today being a Saturday, DWP didn't disappoint.

This time they sent a letter directly to DD, requesting that she attends an interview at the nojob centre.
To assess her benefits. The ones we've only just done fighting for

They are obviously misguided if they think that I will be taking DD who has ASD to give them a free hands on training presentation of autism with bells and whistles on.
They can whistle.