Journals and can you trust your work coach and case manager?

GettinOlde

Apart from the various journal messages left for my wc, I had left a couple under the category 'A Payment' that went unanswered.

One such message was about having repayments deferred for a UC advance, which I had to nudge my work coach about who then gave me the incorrect number to call, see this.

Searching around the interweb I found this ...

A payment – this generates a to-do for the case manager to respond to

But, someone says, here, that journal messages only have a priority of 6 and you'd be better of calling the service centre.

Some useful info on journals here.

Adrian_Scope

There does seem to be an inconsistency between how much case managers/work coaches reply to journal messages. They do ask you to post in your journal rather than calling (and it's good practice because it also gives you evidence of a conversation) but if you don't hear back within 48 hours it is worth calling them, especially if your query is urgent. 

As the link you provided mentions, messages under 'a payment' and 'services issues' go to your case manager and issues a task on their end but depending on how busy they are depends on how quickly they'll respond. When you call, you're usually directed to your case manager but if they're on another call it will be diverted to another in their team who will have access to your account. 

My advice would be to do both — start with the journal message and —if possible— chase up by phone.