Advice needed please 🙏 I am my daughter's appointee, does she need to attend the job centre?

bb1965

Hi, I’m a carer to my daughter who has autism, diagnosed at 2 yrs old, she is now 32 and lives with me. I oversee everything in order to keep her safe, take care of her finances etc…she is in receipt of universal credit and PIP, she has just been awarded the higher rate of mobility as since covid she has got progressively worse when leaving the house and where I once could get her to go on public transport, she now refuses. Wears a mask everywhere and is constantly wiping everything she touches. The same day she was awarded the Higher rate, there appeared a journal entry on her universal credit, saying we needed to provide bank statements as they were checking her entitlement, also asking my daughter if I was still her appointee and if so we both needed to attend the job centre with proof of ID.
I have two questions about this…

a) Shouldn’t they be asking me if I am her appointee? Not her as if I hadn’t looked she wouldn’t have a clue what that’s about, that’s why I’m her appointee!

b) Does my daughter have to attend the job centre? It will cause her unnecessary stress and we’ve already gone through all the ID checks online when she was moved from ESA support group in 2019.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read/reply to this post.

Rosie_Scope

Hi @bb1965, welcome! I'm not too familiar with this myself, but I'll move your post over into our Universal Credit section so it can be found more easily. It's nothing you've done wrong, it just means more members can find it to offer their advice and experiences.

It does sound a little strange that they've contacted her instead of you, but I know that Universal Credit do conduct reviews into appointees occasionally to check things are still working out okay. They may have just addressed it to the claimant as a part of the process, but again, I'm no expert on this side of things. Hopefully one of our lovely members can answer your questions with some more solid advice than I can 😊

poppy123456

Are you her official appointee, which was all set up by UC? If so then you should have been asked for your phone number and other contact details not your daughters.

If there's access to a journal then messages and letter will be put onto there. If they have your daughters email address or mobile number then she will receive an email or text if there's a message on her journal. If it's your contact details then you will receive the messages. No letters are sent through the post when you have access to a journal, apart from the UC50 form when it's time for a review.

Sounds like this is a review of her claim, they are reviewing thousands of people. Usually for ID purposes they ask you to take a picture holding your passport. They don't usually ask you to attend your local job centre. You can ask them if they will accept this from your daughter, rather than her attend the appointment in person. She should NOT be expected to attend, if you are her official appointee.

bb1965

Thank you, yes I am her official appointee, which was all done when someone came to the house years ago to ID us and make sure all was as it should be.
The message was on her journal, I’ve just had another message and I think there has been an error as they apologised so that’s put my mind at ease. Thanks again for your reply, I just wanted to be ready for any problems and know daughters rights before I spoke to anyone.

bb1965

Thank you