Contacting Universal Credit

[NoLongerATeacher]

Hello Hoping someone can help my sister. DS is claiming universal credit which she set up over the phone ( not technically savvy). She notified them by phone of her DH pension increase and she thought everything was fine. Couple of days later she received a letter stating she owed them £200 which they took from her next payment - leaving her very short of money ( I’ve given it to her but that’s not the point) this is a mistake as pension only went up £17. She has called them every day for 14 days and each time they say her case worker will call her between 8-6. She has waited in every day and no one calls. Husband has had a stroke so they’ve been stuck in doors all this time. She is distraught as she thinks they’ll take it again when next payment due. I’ve tried to set her an account up online but it seems you can only do this when you originally claimed. I can’t find an email address to contact them either. Is there anything we can do? Really grateful for any advice. Thank you.

Your sister should have an online journal

Call the citizen advice bureau, they have a direct line to universal credit .
Unfortunately, if the claim is set up originally over the phone, I don’t believe at present there are provision to change to a online journal.
They should send notification letters detailing the breakdown of UC

@wickedwitchofthedance

Your sister should have an online journal

Sadly she hasn’t because she applied by phone.

@Sassy31

Call the citizen advice bureau, they have a direct line to universal credit . Unfortunately, if the claim is set up originally over the phone, I don’t believe at present there are provision to change to a online journal. They should send notification letters detailing the breakdown of UC

Thank you I have advised her to contact CAB tomorrow. I’ve also just found a complaints from online to the DWP but that could take 15 days for a response. Basically her husband has 2 pensions. OAP which is £181 per week and a work pension of £19 per week. She called to let them know his OAP was going up by £17 per week. They’ve mistaken this by thinking the work pension has gone up £181 per week hence why now deducing her that from her UC - crazy , how do they expect people to live ( luckily I’m in a position to make sure she’s ok but what if I wasn’t? I would say they have worked hard all their lives but she had to quit work when he had the stroke as he’s also disabled. Thanks for your help much appreciated.

I know. I completely sympathise it’s a shockingly hard system to navigate Good luck.

Is she ringing from the phone that she set the Uc account up under ( the number they have on record), because I've found if you call from this same number it tends to go through to the local job centre rather than a national/ regional centre and you are more likely to be able to speak to your own case manager.
As an aside, is her dh getting Attendance allowance or PIP, is she getting a carer element on the claim and I with AA or higher rate PIP i believe her dh should be able to get the LCWRA element on the claim, so check that is on there too.

I don't know if CAB have the same as we do (benefits adviser), OP, but we have an email address we can use to escalate issues like this for clients.

Using the escalation email usually gets things resolved pretty quickly. I'd suggest she ask CAB if they have similar when she calls them.