Universal Credit and the Financial Ombudsman



I've done a cursory search and apparently the process is:

Someone in the call centre follows the Government guidelines of whatever part of Universal Credit they're applying.

If you disagree you put in for a 'mandatory reconsideration' within a month and if you have any sort of evidence to back up your appeal, you send it in.

If your reconsideration is rejected, you take it to a legal tribunal in the courts, which takes it out of Universal Credit staff jurisdiction.

Hope this helps.
 
I've done a cursory search and apparently the process is:

Someone in the call centre follows the Government guidelines of whatever part of Universal Credit they're applying.

If you disagree you put in for a 'mandatory reconsideration' within a month and if you have any sort of evidence to back up your appeal, you send it in.

If your reconsideration is rejected, you take it to a legal tribunal in the courts, which takes it out of Universal Credit staff jurisdiction.

Hope this helps.
Exactly....and this will be the response,if you get one,from a MP....someone like Graham Morris,would be inundated if everyone with a UC problem contacted him...he and most other MPs will do nothing
 
if the op lived in the USA he could go into the local dole office and wipe them out with a colt python

Quite luckily it's not the USA otherwise I'd have probably done this already and be brown bread myself.

Which office was your UC claim at ?
A complaint is defined as any expression of dissatisfaction about the service provided which is not resolved by operational staff as normal business.

You can contact us about any aspect of the service you’ve received, including:

  • mistakes that have been made
  • unreasonable delays
  • how you’ve been treated
  • not being kept informed
Have you raised the RTI (real time information) dispute ? You will have done this in your local office ?
If so have you had the decision back, if so raise a mandatory reconsideration of that decision

Personally, if you want to get people really looking at your case, and get a time bound response, I would raise a complaint, but this has to be about the way you have been treated , not the outcomes of your claim.
This link goes to the District Office for the site where you made your claim.
They will then ask the office manager to fully investigate and respond.

So you would stress the "not being kept informed" and I would specifically get a line in around " I have done the right thing, getting back into work, yet this has closed my claim, and artificially closed down my original complaint, which remains outstanding".

If this doesnt get you anywhere, then you go to ICE.

Very good angle to look at it from mate, much appreciated. I am going to contact east durham trust as @Sotodave has suggested then if they can't do anything I will follow your advice. What is ICE?
 
Quite luckily it's not the USA otherwise I'd have probably done this already and be brown bread myself.



Very good angle to look at it from mate, much appreciated. I am going to contact east durham trust as @Sotodave has suggested then if they can't do anything I will follow your advice. What is ICE?
ICE = Independent Case Examiner.
Follow the complaint link i sent you, and that means you start rattling them. IF they have made a mistake they will settle quickly. If they dont agree they have to send you a statement outlining the legislation they used to reach their decision.
 
Your dispute is called an RTI dispute. You dispute the date you received the payment, and you have proved through bank statements that the final wage dropped in outside your payment month. To be fair to DWp they can only go on the date the hmrc rti (real time information) says it went in, but since then you have proved it went in outside your AP ( assessment period). Stick to this fact, be consistent.
 
I've done a cursory search and apparently the process is:

Someone in the call centre follows the Government guidelines of whatever part of Universal Credit they're applying.

If you disagree you put in for a 'mandatory reconsideration' within a month and if you have any sort of evidence to back up your appeal, you send it in.

If your reconsideration is rejected, you take it to a legal tribunal in the courts, which takes it out of Universal Credit staff jurisdiction.

Hope this helps.
In layman’s terms. An almighty arse on, hoping people can’t be bothered and give up

Vote Tory folks.
 
The same twat who reckoned he could live on 53 pound a week, yet was in the papers not long after for ordering a breakfast that cost something like 23 quid. Conceited wanker of the highest order!!
Lives in a forty plus bedroom property with his wife. Thinks nowt about how the ridiculous bedroom tax has caused almighty problems and solved not one jot of the housing problem

Anyone voting to support anything he thinks of, latest wheeze of up retirement to 75 plus, is a downright fool.

Yet they will all lap it up from their ivory towers, but eventually their turn will come.

The cries will be lapped up by the likes of me, withtold you so, in hundred foot high letters
 
Which office was your UC claim at ?
A complaint is defined as any expression of dissatisfaction about the service provided which is not resolved by operational staff as normal business.

You can contact us about any aspect of the service you’ve received, including:

  • mistakes that have been made
  • unreasonable delays
  • how you’ve been treated
  • not being kept informed
Have you raised the RTI (real time information) dispute ? You will have done this in your local office ?
If so have you had the decision back, if so raise a mandatory reconsideration of that decision

Personally, if you want to get people really looking at your case, and get a time bound response, I would raise a complaint, but this has to be about the way you have been treated , not the outcomes of your claim.
This link goes to the District Office for the site where you made your claim.
They will then ask the office manager to fully investigate and respond.

So you would stress the "not being kept informed" and I would specifically get a line in around " I have done the right thing, getting back into work, yet this has closed my claim, and artificially closed down my original complaint, which remains outstanding".

If this doesnt get you anywhere, then you go to ICE.

So I followed the process on Monday 26th August and submitted my complaint. I was then taken to a web page where I was informed I would be contacted within 5 working days, that would have been last Friday - yesterday at the latest. It seems UC can't even follow their own processes.. Complete shambles. Shall I just submit another complaint in a day or two if I still haven't heard? Or should I just call the UC helpline (god help me)..
 
Just spent 90 minutes on the phone to UC who have advised me that they are still waiting for a response from my old employer. The lad on the phone advised me to take it to my MP as that's the only way things get resolved apparently. Anyone got any advice on the best way to do this as my local MP never f***ing responds to anything :lol: :cry:.
 
Exactly....and this will be the response,if you get one,from a MP....someone like Graham Morris,would be inundated if everyone with a UC problem contacted him...he and most other MPs will do nothing

Absolutely untrue.
I work for Grahame Morris. I am inundated with UC and PIP problems every single day.
There is a specially set up MPs hotline that we use to deal with these issues. We win people their tribunals and mandatory reconsiderations every single day.
We are specially trained for this.
I know not every office in the area do this but we do!


@FishburnMackem
Pm me and tell me who your mp is, if you like I can contact their office tomorrow and ask them to contact the DWP on your behalf.
This made me laugh out loud....MP helping with UC...half of them wouldn’t know a thing about it....


If you volunteer for EDT I’d expect you to know better considering EDT refer the majority of their UC enquiries to us in the MPs office.
 
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Initial ideas for Universal Credit were decent. The problem was that so many tinkered with it, it went from being common sense, to being even worse tgan the system it is meant to replace.

To add to the fun, they took the work allowance from what would have been the Jobseeker's Allowance claimants making small hours or zero hour contracts not worth it.

They still crow on about a work allowance, but never mention it is only for equivalents of Income Support or ESA only.

Now the whole thing is a mess. I have no idea of how a better system can be created, as you have to consider pre ious systems to make sure the majority aren't made worse off.

Good luck to those trying to make it usable.

It's a complete mess. Any new government with any sense would abolish the roll out for existing claimants. Accept that it may cost a bit more, but it'll stop costly admin and more importantly the them the negative press.

I'm amazed this hasn't been done already. They could have declared the rollout complete already and avoided a load of backlash they'll have when mid earning families are dragged in and lose their tax credits for having savings etc
Ian Duncan Smith. The man has up to now 17000 deaths on his conscience. They still vote Tory though

You can vote Tory when you're dead? Presumably there's an MP for hades?
 
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Off topic but bloke I used to work with is a business mentor of some description on the UC scheme. God knows how as he went to prison for 2 years in 2014 after stiffing a charity out of £250k
 
Absolutely untrue.
I work for Grahame Morris. I am inundated with UC and PIP problems every single day.
There is a specially set up MPs hotline that we use to deal with these issues. We win people their tribunals and mandatory reconsiderations every single day.
We are specially trained for this.
I know not every office in the area do this but we do!


@FishburnMackem
Pm me and tell me who your mp is, if you like I can contact their office tomorrow and ask them to contact the DWP on your behalf.



If you volunteer for EDT I’d expect you to know better considering EDT refer the majority of their UC enquiries to us in the MPs office.

PMd you mate, thanks.
 

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