Universal credit phone call

Dynamisante

hey guys, just looking for some advice on a current ongoing situation, so my daughter called uc yesterday and struggled with her verification, the guy on the line kept telling her that she didn’t pass security as he ‘couldn’t find her on the system’ she persisted with my support and he was telling her to ‘pay attention and listen to his questions’ he told her this on numerous occasions, she was on loud speaker, everything she had quoted was correct, dob, postcode, etc, but still he persisted in telling her to pay attention and listen to his questions, my daughter was physically shaking at this point with anxiety as she not only couldn’t understand his accent but couldn’t understand why he ‘kept asking her the same questions’ and telling her the answer was wrong and she needs to ‘pay attention and listen to the question’ eventually she just handed me the phone in tears , (she suffers with extreme anxiety and depression) I requested a phone call from his manager tomorrow between 10am and 2pm, the manager will call my daughter back and after verification from her I will take over the call as her support, I’m absolutely disgusted that he felt it was his right to talk to a vulnerable young adult in the way that he did, we never even got around to the question of why she was actually calling in the first place, can she actually put in an official complaint, or is this just the way young vulnerable adults are expected to be spoken to ?

ChrisR777

I can only offer my opinion as a benefit claimant, but I personally wouldn't start making complaints, certainly not before a claim is up and running. One can't know what a potentially vindictive employee might do if they are reprimanded, whilst still having power over decision.

Dynamisante

@ChrisR777, thank you for your opinion, and I absolutely agree with what you are saying, but in this instance it is a joint claimant with her partner, for the last few years and all the funds, including 2 children’s elements are paid into his sole account , she sees absolutely nothing of the £1700 he is receiving, all she gets is just over £40 per week for 2x child benefit, she has just started to realise that she has been financially controlled and abused for the last few years, the universal credit call was about that, it has been a tremendous thing for her to do and obviously I am there to support her.

WhatThe

@Dynamisante I would add that you may not get the requested phone call and may need to ring them again. Thank goodness for your support.

It sounds very complicated and the agent probably had incorrect information/conflicting details. I would caution against sharing too much information on a public forum. Record the calls.

Ross1975

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1149392#Comment_1149392

I’m not sure that the agent necessarily had incorrect information or conflicting details. The fact that the verification questions weren't successfully answered doesn't really tell us what caused the problem.

UC does use telephone biographical interviews to verify identity using information held on DWP records so it could have been a discrepancy in the records, a misunderstanding of the questions/answers, or simply difficulty communicating over the phone. From the information in the post I don't think we can say that the agent probably had incorrect information.

OverlyAnxious

This is about the 4th post I've seen on here within a week or so where DWP can't find someone on the system. I think there's a system glitch at the moment. I suspect it's happening to a lot more people as well, who don't post on here.

With regard to the way she was spoken to, the call handlers have basic scripts to read from and can't go any further until the ID is verified. It sounds like English may not have been his first language and he may not have been aware of the way 'pay attention' comes across as rude to a native English speaker in the UK.

uggboots2222

I had terrible problems verification on my identity, went down job centre plus and was sorted down in the office, Lots of computer glitches. But it may have been me, not very computer literate. I was told problems all the time.