DWP frustrations

[Senttotestus]

Just a Sunday rant to be honest - I’m currently trying to complete the holy grail for my elderly mother. Attendance allowance, pension credit & a blue badge

Attendance allowance ✅ what a farce that was, initially refused, appealed after it came to light they my mother & another woman had been issued with the same NI number (in the early 60’s)

Pension credit - have applied online & got a phone call to explain they need bank statements. The DWP do not accept any external emails (what other organisations work like this??) so statements must be printed & posted to them via a pre paid envelope. It took 10 working days to receive the letter requesting the statements & they have forgotten to include the pre paid envelope!!! FFS

Next job is applying for a Blue Badge - God give me strength.

What do elderly people do if they don’t have a stubborn peri menopausal woman to be their PA?

How old is your mother?

They suffer!

80 this year

Yep... we have MIL 87 going into care. Having to arrange deferred payment with the council as she owns a house.

Except her house isn't registered with land registry.

Need to arrange that... so they can register a charge on the property.... and when FIL died his name wasn't removed from ownership/deeds/whatever, so we need to find (ha!) or get a copy of his death certificate... it is one step forward, one step back. Everthing requires sending original documents or certified copies - added time and risk of stuff going missing... Everything needs to be fought through blindly... but quickly... as you say they need a stubborn PA to advocate, collate and chase absolutely everything..

@BeyondMyWits wow that is a complex situation - what would happen if your mother in law had not had any children or had no one to help her?

I really don't know, I guess a court might appoint someone to deal with stuff?
It is not much fun and soooooo time consuming.

If they can't do it themselves they contact Age Uk and we do it all for them free of charge. This is exactly my job ! I do home visits to complete the forms, follow up benefit checks, Blue badge applications etc - I usually do the Blue badge online, take the photo whilst I'm there, easy to upload online and send all medical evidence. With AA and BB the medical evidence is absolutely the best way of securing a good outcome. We are considering stopping doing the pension credit applications as people get muddled, give incomplete details , forget about bank accounts and savings and we are just finding it leaves us in a bit of a precarious position although it's obviously up to DWP to properly check people's assets. people forget to declare premium bonds etc, we have had a few done for benefit fraud recently.

I recently became aware of this land registry issue after a client that I visited as part of my job told me of the difficulty he was having. I asked my elderly dad to check as he has been in the same house since the early sixties and lo and behold his home was not registered, so he is having to sort this now. Otherwise I believe it would be hard for us to sell the house if he died. I'm glad we have discovered the problem sooner than later. There is just one other house apart from his on the road ( another elderly couple ) who are not registered.

@Miley23 so you have multiple experiences of completing these processes! Do you get massively frustrated with them too?

The vast majority of the AA forms I help complete are awarded. I guess I find the forms easy as I do so many, probably seven or eight a week. I do find the blue badge forms tedious as they ask the same questions in different ways. Pension credit forms tedious for the reasons I described above- people don't declare things fully, forget about bonds, old bank accounts etc, feel they shouldn't have their finances scrutinized etc. When older people realize the level of scrutiny of their finances face when making a claim for a means tested benefit they often just don't want to go ahead. Obviously Attendance allowance is non means tested so not such a problem. Just a word of caution with the Attendance alowance - there is a new shortened tick box form online which does not give much space to explain the person's diffciulties and we are finding that people who complete these are not being awarded. Best to order a paper form and send as much medical evidence as possible, so things like GP summary request which GP should supply free of charge, hospital letters, OT assessment report etc.

Called the DWP this morning to confirm which address we should send all the bank statements to as we had waited 10 days for a pre paid envelope which didn’t come. Rude woman tells me I could just have looked it up online, no acknowledgement that they omitted to send the envelope or any realisation that my mother, like many people, is not capable of looking online - what a shower!

It really is awful, the way they are sidelining those who simply cannot cope with the Internet.

MIL had her own kindle, tablet, desktop computer but has dementia which came with significant cognitive decline early on during diagnosis in 2018. She's kept up with the world for as long as she could, but her brain has broken. She can no longer use any gadgets - including the TV remote, they are simply no longer in her memory bank.

People at the start of that journey, pre diagnosis, but starting with mild cognitive decline must find it so hard - trying to explain that they can use a landline, but not a mobile. A remote control, but not WiFi... and that is for people who have regularly used devices. Those who haven't, have no chance.

All government departments should have an access officer making sure EVERYONE can access their services easily.

That's awful!
Pre covid I did an AA application and blue badge application for my mum and had no issues at all.
The BB was issued within 4 hours 😬
DWP, like HMRC and DVLA need a complete overhaul.
I think lots of govt dept workers now work from home which adds to the wait times and getting answers.
It's beyond ridiculous.

...and I'd add local govt depts to that's, too.
Takes months to get a response, then they ask for info they already have!

@groovylady 4 hours to get a BB issued - amazing! That might just be what I needed to hear to motivate me!

Having spoken to many, many different people to organise things for my mum when she had a terminal diagnosis, I can confidently say DWP were by far and away the worst. Utterly rude and zero sympathy. It felt like they were being asked to give out their own money! My mum was initially declined attendance allowance as she hadn’t had her condition for more than 6 months, insane considering she had been given a prognosis of 2-4 months to live.

Sending LOTS of empathy your way. One thing that was frequently said to me was fill in every form as if it’s your parents worst day.

My advice is full in the forms on what would be your mums worst day.
Don't minimise or use her best day as a guide.
Add all medications (I had to use 2 pages on the form...)
Wrt metres able to walk, always round down, not up as mobility cam fluctuate so much on a day to day basis.
Remember, you can't apply for a BB without AA being awarded (or it used to be that way...)
Good luck!

It is possible to apply for a Blue badge without AA being awarded. AA has no mobility component anyway so is no reflection of mobility except ability to get around the home.

My Dad has a blue badge but doesn't receive attendance allowance. He wont claim it as he sees it as a sign of frailty....he's 90!!!

Update - the DWP has closed my mother’s pension credit claim as they did not receive any of the bank statements.

I am beyond frustrated

• The DWP forgot to send the self addressed envelope, rude woman completely refused to acknowledge this error & kept repeating just send it in to the address on the website - it will get to us
• I paid £8.50 to send all documents recorded delivery (the post office proof of delivery is a photo of stack of envelopes so nothing specifically showing our envelope)
• These documents have all my mothers details in bank account numbers etc etc

The DWP do not accept any external emails so will they want me to post them all again -& HOPE they arrive this time?? It’s no wonder people give up - if I can find the energy I will make a formal complaint

There should be a special rant phone line for those at the mercy of these processes. On the end would be kind helpful people who would say "I can sort that out for you...."

But of course it would be permanently busy and you wouldn't get through, which would be frustrating

Blue badges are easier - council issue them. As long as you have correct paperwork eg mobility at higher rate or gp has signed the form it should take 30-60 mins, at least at my council it did, you do have to take a ticket and queue though

Oh I’ve done the blue badge application and can track that and see it has moved precisely nowhere since we sent it in on the 21st April - it is a 7 to 11 week process though

I'm not sure if it's any help but when applying for attendance allowance for my mum I needed poa documents officially copied and got this done at the job centre so not sure if they can assist you at all

Thank you @GardenersDelight that is useful to know

Can you imagine any other workforce not accepting emails as a form of communication in 2025 !!