My client came out of work in May and was told to make JCP teleclaim. Refused IB due to insufficient NICs. Never heard anything about any other benefits and simply assumed he had no entitlement. After relying on handouts he eventually contacted local office again and they told him to make fresh claim and he's since been awarded IS, HB and CTB but his backdate requests have been refused.

First time I've seen him today and I know I should know better but I thought this is what CMS was all about. It seems pretty straightforward to me that if he makes a teleclaim and the correct questions are asked/answered then this one call should be considered a claim for IB, IS, HB/CTB. Am I being naive??

I'm writing for a transcript of May's taped teleclaim and also the customer statement. However this'll be after I've sussed where to write with my request. In this locality we have 3 offices in addition to the JCP callcentre who will have had some dealings with my client's IB claim. Then yawn yawn about 6 months of me mithering before it's out of storage.

Simplification of the benefit system my a***.

Please tell me I'm right!

Sue

Hi Sue

What did he ask them when he first contacted them and who told him to make JCP claim and what did they tell him to claim?

Hi Paul,

This is what I was trying to elicit but it was really hard work. He kept going off at a tangent as some clients do and I kept trying to coax him back to steps he took for the May claim eg "how did you know what to claim?", "who told you how to claim?", "did you call in/phone local office first?" etc etc but he couldn't remember anything apart from local office told him to use their phone to ring JCP cc to register.

I can only presume he told JCP cc of his predicament and they asked the relevant questions (who am I kidding?!?!?!) - are you claiming because you're sick, what is your income, capital, do you live in rented accom blah blah.

This is why I need to ask for the cust.statement and transcript

What call centre do you use in your area?

Nicky

Marton Mere but I was told yesterday phone redirects to another cc if lines are busy so could be anywhere really. In this case they've confirmed MM would have taken the original claim.

Oh - i don't have any dealings with that contact centre.

Now if it had been Blackburn i could have provided you with all sorts of numbers to enable you to get the taped conversations!

Don't know what to suggest really now.

No worries but thanks anyway. I've put them on verbal notice of my request and letter going out today. If I don't get any joy I'll be back of this site shouting for help

If the IS/HB/CTB claims were NOT done over the phone via a CC, the IB or IS section can view CMS and tell you what benefit(s) were claimed in May. If IS etc claims WERE taken over the phone, they will not be able to tell what was claimed in May as CMS only holds the 'latest'
benefit(s)claimed.

The IB section should be able to produce the customer statement from storage without the need for the taped phone call.

The IB section will have issued form IB35 to the customer telling him which tax year(s)did not qualify. If the tax year was 04/05, ask him to forward his 04/05 P60 to the IB section, as not all of the 04/05 NIC's have been processed by HMRC.

Interesting - we've been told by our local JC+ office staff (i.e. not Contact Centre staff) that Contact Centre calls may not be recorded. If calls are recorded they've said there has to be a 'warning' message at the start of the call - and they did not think this was the case at their Contact Centres. Has anyone got an alternative answer? Has anyone ever got a copy of a taped IS/IB contact centre call?

Mon 05-Feb-07 09:02 AM by ken

Did I really write that sarky suject heading (yeah I know I did)

Thanks for your suggestions Mick. Not heard from either requests for tape or customer statement I made weeks ago. I think the storage centre must be off the map as it always takes months for anything to be retrieved from there. I thought I'd ask for the tape to make it quicker and in any case might give me more proof anyway of what client said and what questions were asked.

As a slight aside, files that go into storage from Debt Management must vapourise as they're never materialise if we ask for them.

Sue

Sue, i think you were definitely onto something...i've just had a call back from JC+ to tell me that client's case has been referred to the "complex team". she was the leader of the "simple team"!!!!
'complex' is apparently defined as anything that is not straightforward.

- in this case, what has happened to the £1100+ arrears of JSA withheld from August to December to check for possible recovery of working tax credit? they are obviously in some difficulties, so i would be surprised if we don't see a further breakdown into simple, complex, and really complex...

actually, it took them over a month to decide that it was a complex case and refer it...when i refered to my letters in phone call this morning, i was told that they probably hadn't even been looked at yet - they have a backlog... the 'simple team' team leader rang me back to tell me only that it had been referred to the 'complex team' on 18/1/07, which didn't exactly answer my query... the complex team is in the same office...<sigh>

we are now hearing that the jobcentres are turning away people with queries about their claims, with advice to ring the call centre. Jobcentres are now the only available access to face to face contact, and claimants are IMMENSELY frustrated by this. it seems however that JC+ staff are doing this because they have no way of knowing what is happening on peoples' claims, short of ringing the call-centres themselves, which i expect is too time-consuming...the processing arrangements appear to be ad hoc rather than planned, and JC+ staff don't know where claims are being dealt with.

the infrastructure for delivery of social security benefits has been wrecked for CMS - the gateway to oblivion.

I might have posted a similar response before but here goes.......Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggghhhh