Question about upcoming UC Review

JR199

Hello, I was contacted about a UCR and was required to upload photo ID and bank statements, which I did. They have now booked a phone call for next week too.

The problem is, due to my mental health and disabilities, I really struggle on the phone, especially with strangers. I freeze up and struggle to communicate clearly. I am at risk of panic attacks or going completely nonverbal. Since I've had negative past experiences with the DWP, I'm already on edge and feel there's a higher likelihood of this happening because of that.

Is it possible to request a paper based review or to have a carer speak to them on the day? Does anyone else have experience with this please? Will requesting these things harm my review or the outcome?

Thank you.

Rosie_Scope

Hi @JR199, Could you perhaps explain your difficulties in a journal message? You might be able to ask for a reasonable adjustment to make it more manageable for you. Your carer may be able to help you or there could be an alternative way of doing things. If you get in touch with them as soon as you can, hopefully they'll be able to explain what your options are and get things sorted out for you 😊

JR199

Hi Rosie_Scope,

Thank you so much. I did this and mentioned needing reasonable adjustments due to the distress the phone call would cause. Unfortunately, I have received the following reply:

"Your appointment is by telephone not to attend a job centre. We will use the journal for some contact but this cannot be the only method of contact. I have let your job centre know of your message."

Can you please advise what else I can do or what next steps are? Note that in my message I never said anything about attending the jobcentre and explicitly referred to a phone call, so I'm not sure why they mentioned this.

If they continue to refuse I'm at a bit of a loss because a phone call won't benefit either me or them. They won't get the information they're requesting if I'm too overwhelmed to provide it.

Thank you so much for your help.

anisty

I really think if your carer can be next to you when the phone call happens, the reviewer will be ok with speaking to your carer.

This is of course if you are comfortable with your carer seeing your bank statements and answering some questions about them.

I can't see them refusing this request.

The agents that do these review calls are friendly and not at all threatening. This literally is a call to see how much money you currently have unspent in total.

They will ask about a few spends - but they aren't at all interested in what you have spent money on so don't be worrying about that - it is only to check you're not squirrelling money away really.

You will need to have your 4 months statements laid out in front of you when they call (or at least be able to bring them up on a screen quickly) so your carer will need to see the full statements too.

I am just about 100% certain they will approve your request. I will be absolutely staggered if they don't!