Hi, my name is Bestestwishes! DWP lost my sons photographic proof of ID. Who is responsible?

Bestestwishes

Whist making a PIP claim, DWP appear to have lost my sons photographic proof of ID. I sent his passport and Student ID with a letter from HRC and a covering note. They have scanned the 2 letters and uploaded them, so I know the envelope arrived but they say they dont have his passport or Student ID. Who is responsible for their replacement which is going to be nearly£100 ? Any advice on what I should do now please?

Albus_Scope

Heya @Bestestwishes and welcome to the community.

Oh no, that's not good at all! The DWP do ask for photocopies of documents just in case they get lost, so I'm unsure if they'd take responsibility unfortunately. I'd keep checking in with them, just in case they turn up again. 

Bestestwishes

Hi Albus
If only they had been photo copies. DWP specifically stated they must be originals. They have told me an external company is used to deal with the mail then return the documents. I obviously dont have a relationship with that company and Im conscious that someone out there could now use my sons identity for Fraud.  Its 5 weeks since I sent them off.  How long can I leave it before I need to cancel the passport to try to minimise any possible fraud. I wish Id never made the PIP claim for him now as worse off than when we started.

Albus_Scope

I'd suggest asking the DWP for contact details for the external company, they may be able to track it down?  I've heard several stories of passports being lost, only to turn up a few weeks after they were asked. They were just in the wrong pile.   

Bestestwishes

Hi Albus. Thank you for the suggestion. I will give that a go on Monday.

Ricky_2024

hi

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/864501#Comment_864501

Hi dear

I have the same situation as you and they told me that they didn't even receive my passport after 10 working days. Did you get your passport?thsnk you

Dr_Arkham

Dr_Arkham

sorry - late to the party - just saw this - I had exactly the same happen to me - to cut a long story short I finally got my documents returned - along with a letter from the DWP stating that my PIP claim had been stopped as the didn’t have the ID documents (Yes - the ones returned in a separate envelope but in the same post - you couldn’t make it up!!)