UC phone appointment. Job centre never called and now saying I missed an appointment

DJ17

Hello, I am sure I am not the only one who has had a phone appointment where the Jobcentre claims they called, but you didn’t answer. Please help me with how to deal with this and how to prevent them from doing this to me again. This is the first time they have done this to me. Every month I have a new person calling me. I don’t even know who my advisor is anymore. They are trying to get me onto the Restart/Work Programme.

Today, I had a phone appointment at 9:30. Before 10:00, I logged into my account to see if there was a message from the advisor saying they were running late. Around 10:30, I sent a journal message asking if they were going to call me. Two weeks ago, I had exactly the same issue—no one called, but they later said the advisor wasn’t in. This time, in the afternoon, I got a message saying I didn’t attend the appointment.

How can I prove to them that they didn’t call? Is this a common trick that the Jobcentre uses, and how do I protect myself from this nonsense in the future?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

OverlyAnxious

Hi,

The sad reality is you can't prove to them that they didn't call.

They will have call records showing every number that they've phoned each day, but even if you ask them to check those they probably won't…

If you get sanctioned then it needs to be escalated and appealed, but if you haven't lost any money from this then there isn't really anything you can do.

WhatThe

Hello DJ17.

Yup. Happened to me repeatedly and I have two phone numbers which never rang at the appointed time.

Nothing ever came of it, no sanctions but the fear never left me. I would just write an entry in the journal stating that no call was made though sometimes calls were made at random times. They don't leave voicemails which would be proof enough.

Ask them what number they rang. They'll probably ask you for your number so they can pretend it's new information. DWP never admits mistakes. Decisions overturned at Tribunal are not errors but DWP failures!

OverlyAnxious

"DWP never admits mistakes."

A few years ago my PIP was stopped even though I'd sent the review forms in well before the deadline. A relative had to phone up to get it reinstated.

I then received a letter from DWP that said: 'I have decided that YOU had a good reason for not returning the form on time'.

Damn cheek!! 😆