So, today’s highlight was a call to  Samantha at Bootle. I suppose a bit of background might help first. The call was to find out why my client had not been paid his benefit awarded by a Tribunal on 25th May.

Samantha tells me that yes there is a note on the appeal section that they received notification on 1st June that my client had won his appeal, but it had not been written up by the DRT team (she says that’s what should happen). I have no idea who the DRT team is or what they do but Samantha says she has emailed the DRT team while we were speaking, and they will call my client in 3 to 4 days. She said there was a horrendous back log with everything.  

Now bear in mind this was back in May, my client is owed money and he had to wait 3 to 4 days for a call that probably won’t happen.

So, what will I do? Well a Tribunal award, even a Social Security one, can be enforced in the small claims court. I normally threaten them with this and even draw up the claim form and as if by magic they cough up!

Call two was answered by Jill at Telford. This time I wanted to find out what was causing a delay with a PIP claim. This claim was submitted in August 2017 and my client still had not had a decision. The client had her medical assessment in October 2017. Jill tells me that an email was sent to the case manager who has the case on 26th June, but nothing has been done with it.  She said she will send another email to them, but she said it depends how much of a back log the case  manager has, and she cannot give a time frame when it will be sorted as a report has to be written on it and this hasn’t even been done yet. I feel a complaint coming on ….

On a serious note, it’s excuse after excuse, no one cares and despite what the Government says people are being left without money for months on end.