Benefits

[Jonny8888]

Well, what a bunch of complete wankers. I got told mine were going up, then down, then i was guna get double and now im guna let less. I must have phoned them like 5 times in the past month a got a completely different story each time. Useless. Feel sorry for people who arent too bright trying to claim benefits they must be totally stuffed.

[katralla]

Can be very difficult getting the right amounts, even when you know what you're doing, totally feel for you. Just keep on the case until it's right.

[Randomgirl]

Yeah, the system is really complicated and they often don't seem to know what they are doing.

You have my sympathy :)

[Bohemian]

I work for Jobcentreplus. The new claims office as opposed to the processing office, so I don't deal with payments directly, but I'm fairly clued up on most of it so if you wanted some more detailed advice, feel free to send me a private message. Otherwise I'm quite happy to discuss it with you here, if you're comfortable with that.

[MrG]

I went to claim benefits once, it got so held up with this and that, and then wrangles about me technically not leaving uni etc

Then by the time they agreed they would give me money, i had got a job, but then again they wouldnt even give me the dole money they said i was entitled to!

[Bohemian]

I went to claim benefits once, it got so held up with this and that, and then wrangles about me technically not leaving uni etc

Then by the time they agreed they would give me money, i had got a job, but then again they wouldnt even give me the dole money they said i was entitled to!

Depending on when it was that you originally made the claim, MrG, but there is such a thing as a Wholly Retospective claim, where you can make a claim for a past period of time. You were entitled to receive the money you were owed during that period and they shouldn't have refused payment, regardless of the fact that you'd since found work.

[MrG]

Depending on when it was that you originally made the claim, MrG, but there is such a thing as a Wholly Retospective claim, where you can make a claim for a past period of time. You were entitled to receive the money you were owed during that period and they shouldn't have refused payment, regardless of the fact that you'd since found work.

This was a whle back mind, but they pretty much refused to sort out my money!

Was about 5 weeks of payments

[Bohemian]

It's an absolute bastard, I agree with you. Without knowing how long ago it was, I can't be sure whether or not you'd be able to fight your cause... there are no exact rules about how long is too long before making a Wholly Retrospective claim, as far as I'm aware.

[Kermit]

I don't really want to correct you but ion all my time as a benefits specialist I've never come across a "wholly retrospective claim". You have a duty to claim benefit as soon as possible and the maximum period of time that a claim will be backdated for will be three months (or 12 months for some benefits, e.g. pension credit).

There are strict time limits for claiming benefits. However, if you miss the time limit for claiming, your claim can sometimes be backdated for up to three months (12 months for pension credit (PC) and retirement pension) or, for most benefits, longer if you are reclaiming following the award of a ?qualifying benefit?

The DWP will sometimes offer an ex-gratia payment if they made a mess of the claim or gave you wrong advice (e.g told you that you could not claim when you could).

What I expect happened with your claim MrG is that you failed to sign on. Even if the decision maker has not decided to award you benefit, if you do not sign on you will lose entitlement.

[Bohemian]

I don't really want to correct you but ion all my time as a benefits specialist I've never come across a "wholly retrospective claim". You have a duty to claim benefit as soon as possible and the maximum period of time that a claim will be backdated for will be three months (or 12 months for some benefits, e.g. pension credit).

This is true. When making an initial claim to benefit, you can only request backdating for a maximum of 3 months.

But there is such a thing as a wholly retrospective claim. They're rare - we hardly ever process them - but they do exist.

For example: One guy phoned me needing to make a claim to Jobseeker's Allowance. He had been incapacitated the two weeks previously and had not thought, at the time, to make a claim to Incapacity Benefit while he was not able to work. He was advised, by myself and my team leader, to register a new claim to JSA (which he wouldn't have been able to back-date due to being incapable of working previously), and register a wholly retrospective claim to IB for the two weeks prior.

Lord knows if he succeeded or not, but the apparatus is there to try.