Jobcentre plus mistake, someone please help

[Foodarella]

I noticed a while back that I wasn't receiving my healthy start vouchers, and when I did finally receive one it had the wrong address, e.g. My address should be 1 My Court, instead they had put Flat 11 My Court, on their system it read as Flat 1, 1 My Court but when it printed it read like 11 My Court, foolish me thought I'd bring this to their attention. So I called them, they said they couldn't change it and I had to call tax credits as tax credits forwarded on the right address, note tax credit had my address right, so I called the man and he said he would send an update across. Seemed straight forward enough.

Now today low and behold I have received a letter from job centre stating they have stopped my benefits as I have changed my address and I cannot appeal against it. I haven't changed my address. I'm stressing so much I have £10 to my name and needed to be paid this Wednesday.

They said if the decision causes hardship to get in touch, my thinking it'll be a hardship loan. I don't need a loan to pay back, I haven't changed anything and to state I can't appeal against it seems absurd. I wish I'd never bothered to tell them now as they've messed everything up. And I have a headache due to this.

Don't really have an aibu was just looking for advice. How can they get away with saying it can't be appealed when it's their mistake??? How am I going to feed my children or pay for my sons school trip by the end of the week.

Google for your nearest Law Centre, they give legal advice to people that cant afford a lawyer. They may be open on a Saturday.
www.lawcentres.org.uk

When the DSS have been screwing me around I've found that one phone call from a solicitor manages to get their mistake put right.

Just ring them on Monday and they should be abke to sort it out

Thank you guys! I found my nearest law centre, didn't even know about them. And their open from 9am Monday and they're 10 minutes from where I live. So if the job centre refuses to sort it, I'll be down there. Thanks again so much x

Good luck OP. How frustrating for you.

Sounds like your benefits are suspended, so sorting out the confusion should reverse this. Good luck!

If you have any problems getting seen quickly at the law centre then try the Citizen's Advice Bureau.

I hate the way they can stop money for the most pathetic little reasons. Hope you get sorted Op, best of luck.

You do need to speak to the hardship team as they are able to sort it for you really quickly, we had something similar happen and tried everything. 6 weeks later we were no further on so spoke to that team and they resolved it within 3 days. I know you might not want to think about this but are there any food banks local to you?

be aware that if they stop your benefits it stops housing benefit and council tax aswell (if you get them) i had them stop mine once because i wouldnt give them my exes contact details.

Contact Housing benefit on Monday & tell them that you have no income, explain the situation to them & make sure your claim continues based on having zero income.
If your claim is stopped you will usually not be able to backdate your claim if you don't contact them until next month or whenever which is utterly stupid & unreasonable but the rules.

I'd also apply for a hardship loan & get onto the advice centre straight away.

After they (hopefully) sort it, do send a complaint in. DWP can make special payments and it sounds like there have been 2 errors on their part here if I am understanding correctly - both in terms of getting the address wrong initially and then stopping the benefits. Explain how this has affected you. Follow it up with stage Independent Case Examiner if necessary. They might give you £50 or more which I imagine could make a big difference if money is tight.

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

Thanks everyone. I've made a plan and made a list of people and agencies I will be speaking to on Monday, I will also call tax credits along with housing benefits to ensure everyone knows that nothing has changed, my circumstances and address are still the same.

I have told a few ppl and I have 3-4 friends willing to loan me money. I hope it doesn't come to that though. I will update you guys on Monday.

Sounds like an awful situation! Just a heads up- the jobcentre may not be able to sort it directly as the HMRC usually deals with errors on the tax credit side of things

They have no right to tell you can't appeal.
Cheeky fuckers. What are you supposed to do starve. All this because you were honest. You don't need me to tell you but you'd have been best off keeping your mouth shut and not rocking the boat.

9am Monday, visit your Jobcentre and make a signed statement explaining what has occured. Tell the staff to 'HOTT' it to the benefit processing centre and ask for an urgent 'same day payment'.
This is the quickest process and should result in it being sorted.

Also, contact ICO, cc DWP, and raise a complaint. Under GDPR ( and previous DPA) regulations they have a duty to keep your information accurate and they've obviously not done that. Penalties under GDPR are a lot more onerous and there's a lot of focus on this at the moment

Also if they mess you around it's worth seeing if your mp will get involved - they are often able to bang heads together to make issues like this get sorted out.

Call them 0800 169 0130 straight away on Monday. This is the number you have to report any changes even if you told them in the jobcentre. The jobcentre itself has a different system to the actual benefit admin system and the jcp do not tell the bc the address if they are informed of one (idk if they are supposed to but ive had so many customers phone up and say well i told the advisor at my last interview).

When you call and the telephony agent releases the payment it will be 3 days, if the payment is past due please say ‘financial difficulty’ or i or my collegues will not be able to offer same day payment, do not be one of those that sigh and say ‘well it will have to be’ when i ask if it is ok for the payment to take 3 days, i am asking for a reason - to see if there will be financial difficulty.

Trust me the telephony agent will sort it out and it is only suspended, i hope to hear from you on monday.

Hi all! Thanks for your advice! Well the number on the jobcentre letter was an old number, and wasn't even ringing properly. Went into the JC and the agent was really good, he sent them an email and said they had 3 hours to respond and if they didn't to come straight back to him. Within an hour they rang, admitted it was their mistake and reinstated it. I'm so happy, I was thinking it was going to be very difficult. The letter was just very heavy handed and that's why I became so anxious, as it made everything sound so final and out of my control.

Glad you got it sorted.

Amazing!