When the incompetent Jobcentre staff don’t keep their phone appointment and sanction you for it

So I received an email from UC in June about a phone appointment on 21 June at 2.30 pm

The time came and went with no phone call

So I phoned the UC “helpline” that day and told them that no call had been received and that as the security question had been replaced with a request for my PSN I could no longer log into my journal.

They told me the appointment had been cancelled and they would send me a new PSN

A few weeks later, with no new PSN, I received another email asking me to login into my journal.

Cue another call to the “helpline” and they changed the PSN request to a sms code.

I log in and find an “open ended sanction” against me.

So not only have the incompetent Jobcentre staff failed to keep their phone appointment and blamed me for it, they’ve raised a doubt without informing me, giving me the opportunity to contest it or informing me by letter of the “doubt” or the sanction decision.

Needless to say I have posted all the above on my journal and am waiting for what will no doubt be a pathetic attempt at justification for their incompetence and ignoring their own rules set out below:

“In all other cases – ie where the failure to meet agreed requirements is identified other than during a face-to-face meeting - the Work Coach will make every effort to contact the customer to find out why they failed to meet their requirements.  They will do this through the claimant’s previously agreed preferred method of contact as well as any other available means.

Where contact cannot be established, the Work Coach will write to the claimant to invite them to explain why they failed to meet the requirement/s agreed in their Claimant Commitment.

In Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Income Support (IS), the time allowed is extended by a further two working days to allow time for the letter to be received: this means the claimant has seven working days from the date the notification letter is posted. In Universal Credit (UC) Full Service, we will contact the claimant through their on-line journal.”

The liars have also claimed they phoned me and left a voicemail. Well my call log proves otherwise.

In addition they have not phoned me once between 21 June and today

I think it could be an idea to raise this as a complaint.

It could also be a good idea to make a 'Right of Access Request' (used to be known as 'Subject Access Request') for all information held about you electronically or clerically from 2 weeks before the date you were first notified to expect  the call, right up to the date of processing the Right of Access request.

I would make the Right of Access Request and the complaint together.

Keep screen grabs of everything.


https://makeacomplaint.dwp.gov.uk



Let us know how you get on please.

Nightmares wrote:So I received an email from UC in June about a phone appointment on 21 June at 2.30 pm

The time came and went with no phone call

So I phoned the UC “helpline” that day and told them that no call had been received and that as the security question had been replaced with a request for my PSN I could no longer log into my journal.

They told me the appointment had been cancelled and they would send me a new PSN

A few weeks later, with no new PSN, I received another email asking me to login into my journal.

Cue another call to the “helpline” and they changed the PSN request to a sms code.

I log in and find an “open ended sanction” against me.

So not only have the incompetent Jobcentre staff failed to keep their phone appointment and blamed me for it, they’ve raised a doubt without informing me, giving me the opportunity to contest it or informing me by letter of the “doubt” or the sanction decision.

Needless to say I have posted all the above on my journal and am waiting for what will no doubt be a pathetic attempt at justification for their incompetence and ignoring their own rules set out below:

“In all other cases – ie where the failure to meet agreed requirements is identified other than during a face-to-face meeting - the Work Coach will make every effort to contact the customer to find out why they failed to meet their requirements.  They will do this through the claimant’s previously agreed preferred method of contact as well as any other available means.

Where contact cannot be established, the Work Coach will write to the claimant to invite them to explain why they failed to meet the requirement/s agreed in their Claimant Commitment.

In Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Income Support (IS), the time allowed is extended by a further two working days to allow time for the letter to be received: this means the claimant has seven working days from the date the notification letter is posted. In Universal Credit (UC) Full Service, we will contact the claimant through their on-line journal.”

The liars have also claimed they phoned me and left a voicemail. Well my call log proves otherwise.

In addition they have not phoned me once between 21 June and today

A nightmare indeed!

You won't be notified of a sanction at this stage.

You are given time to respond before a decision is made and notified.

Take screen shots of your phone call history with DWP during the relevant dates.