Illness Benefit question

rabnub101

Hi Folks,
Need some advice.
My wife managed to do her back in 8 weeks ago. She had up until then been working 2.5 days a week and casually signing for the rest of the week. So after a visit to the doctor it became clear she was going to be out for a lengthy period.

Off she popped to the local Welfare office to start an Illness Benefit claim as she was no longer able to work.

Completed the forms and started to hand in here certs on a weekly basis. About four weeks in she gets the decision from the Office saying she has not any credits (Paid) in 2011. She knows this is not righ as her P60 says she has 40 insurable weeks for 2011. So before going back to the Welfare she calls into the Revenue and checks this out. They have records of 36 paid contributions. These coupled with her 24 credited contributions should be enough according to the requirements.

Next she sits down with the investigator/inspector who takes copies of all her documentation (P60, Revenue Records and Payslips for 2011) and takes 1 hour 15 minutes to complete the 1 page statement form (10 minutes would have done). She is sending positive signals saying this looks like a mixup with the records which happens from time to time. I think i have enough here to reccomend your credits are fixed up,Dont worry ill sort it out blaaa Blaaa Blaaa.


So here we are 9 weeks after she dropped in her first cert and not a iota of info from the investigator. She gave my wife her number and email which she has used to try and contact for a status update. She wont return any callls and has ignored 3 emails.

Things are getting a little tight and we could really do with the claim being processed in the next week or two. How would i go about escalating this up the food chain within the Social Welfare or would i be wasting my time?? Thankfully i am in full time employment but this has precluded my wife from seeking help off the Community Officer in the short term whilst the cliam is processed (From the Officers mouth)

It looks as clear as day to me that the Social Welfare Dept have an error on their system. The investigator said as much but it cant have taken this long to address this.

Any suggestions would be appreciated??

hawthorne

If you are 200 percent sure you have all the credits and that there is everything ok from your side, I would suggest the following two options:
Go to directly to the top and contact Joan Burton via email.
See your TD- preferable one from the opposition.

rabnub101

hawthorne wrote: »

If you are 200 percent sure you have all the credits and that there is everything ok from your side, I would suggest the following two options:
Go to directly to the top and contact Joan Burton via email.
See your TD- preferable one from the opposition.

Thanks for your reply Hawthorne!
Would an email to Joan Bruton even garner a response?? I'm going to draft an email for her anyway and get her to fire it off! Just a question on the TD. why the opposition and not the government? A local TD is on the cabinet and could be accessed

hawthorne

I know about cases where emails to Joan were looked into within hours.
Oppostion TDs tend to put more effort into their work- they want to be in government the next time....just experience on my side.
But if you have somebody of substance at hand make use of him/her.

hollster2

Hi op my partner was waiting a while for his we went to our local td for help we got it within a week not saying will be that quick but its definitly worth a try!

rabnub101

Ok quick update guys.
One last effort to speak to the Investigator today. My wife dropped in today to the office after calling her this morning. No answer or reply to the message left. My wife started to ask for the dept/section manager to initiate a complaint (As instructed to on the Social Protection website). She was told to ask for the date the investigation report was sent to Store St then ring Store St and chase it from there. Im not entirly convinced the investigator has sent the report to be honest hence the unreturned calls/emails etc.

So no call back this afternoon. She is heading down tomorrow to complain about the delay and its off to Brendan Howlin's constituency office on Sat morning.

Ill keep you informed

rabnub101

Further update guys.
Fobbed off again by the investigator last Friday. She was running out the door (Again) and was too busy to talk (Again). She also promised to get back to my wife on Friday afternoon (Again) but never did (Again).

So my wife contacted the Brendan Howlins Office who were most happy to take her call. The girl there took all the details and said she would chase it up with Wexford First then Store Street in Dublin.

This appears to have lit a fire under the investigator who was answered her phone this morning. She has said the report was delayed in getting to Store street due to Internal post issues (Not sure about this) abut it would be with the relevant person by today/tomorrow.

Now she needs to chase the report through Store Street. Thankfully the TD's office have offered to help out here.

I'll keep you posted

hollster2

Hi all need some advice my partner has been on illness benefit the lasr few weeks he is very depressed and just manages to go doctors to get hs slips and send them off so doctor from the 9th of this month to the 21st did him a 2 weeks cert still not recieved hes in bed very bad noway he is in a state to talk to anyone am i able to ring to see where his money is or is it just the claiment whos aloud??