Unexpected letter- "we need to look at your claim"

benson16

Thank you poppy. I telephoned the call centre just this morning and was told it could be another 3 months. It's been 14 weeks now. Very confusing. 

poppy123456

benson16 said:

Thank you poppy. I telephoned the call centre just this morning and was told it could be another 3 months. It's been 14 weeks now. Very confusing. 

Yes backlogs are huge because of the IB to ESA underpayments, that timescale doesn't surprise me but it's just a guide because there really is no timescales for any decision.

benson16

That seems very unfair and what organisation doesn't give timescales on decisions in 2019? It's like being punished after already being punished. For being unwell in the first place then underpaid and now told to wait while the government take as long as they want.leaving the unfortunate to carry on living in limbo waiting for something we should of had in the first place. Perplexed doesn't quite sum it up. But thanks again poppy I appreciate your information 

poppy123456

No problem. Unfortunately, we can't do anything about backlogs. There's 1000's of people that were transferred across, not just a few.

BenefitsTrainingCo

benson16

Unfortunately there aren't any statutory targets for this work, as with everything the DWP does, but obviously the longer the delay, the longer you are losing out - and so you could complain.

The DWP say that they aim to contact everyone affected by December 2019. They publish updates on this exercise every few months (the latest was in July 2019 & the next will be in October)

We don't know the average wait between being contacted & a decision, but we do know that in July 2019, of the 460,000 people who had been contacted at that stage, nearly 90,000 were still waiting for a decision. So it's very clear that it is slow progress.

You can see more information here.

I've looked to see if anyone has asked a question in the House of Commons or via Freedom of Information on the average wait, but haven't found anything. 

If you've lost out in other ways (for example, having to pay for prescriptions), then it may be worth a complaint in any case.

Will

benson16

You would think they would be working around the clock to rectify the mistakes they made. Obviously the figure of 1200 staff wasnt enough to get this resolved swiftly.