Constant Social welfare mistakes.

DamagedTrax

Im posting this for a friend who's not too computer savy but needs some advice. Basically his local office and the new centralised rent office has made a litany of clerical errors and mistakes on his claims in the last 2 months.

1. On 4 occasions no payment was made to his post office.

One of these was due to them mixing his name up with another claiment of the same name. When he went down to sort it out he discovered their mistake when they gave him a letter about him being caught working.. with someone elses PPS number on it but his address!

The second time they informed him there was a clerical mistake and it was in a different post office. Which he then had to go and collect.

The third time they cut him off was after some ce scheme interview (im not sure exatcly what it was but sounds like the CE scheme). Anyway, it turns out the interviewee never put his name down as 'attended', even though he had signed into the building at the front door and had the paperwork all filled in. The kicker on this one is that it now turns out that he was sent to the wrong office anyway and has to do it all again at another office!

On the fourth occasion he filled in a form for a TUS scheme stating he was available for an interview. The letter stated that the form needed to be in by a certain date. He went to the office and was queing up when a woman went down the line asking if she could help anyone. Naturally he said yes, i just have a form to drop in. She said she'd take it and he didnt have to wait around... Bad move. by the following monday he'd been cut off. So after ANOTHER trip down to the office (which is amazingly a €2.15 bus journey from his home making it €21.50 in bus fares to and from the office in 1 month including his signing day for that month), he was told the form never reached them. After a lot of waiting around the form was found and then claim made ok again. The woman in question has made many of these mistakes before as he found out when others around him heard what happened. Seemingly she herself is on some kind of work scheme and is well known for her incompetence by the regulars.

2. Rent allowance is constantly not paid.

This has happened on 3 occasions recently.

The first was related to the above mentioned CE interview issue.

The second was because he couldnt get his landlord's PPS number as landlord was away. He stated this clearly on the form along with a note saying he would furnish it at earliest opportunity. Also he has been a tenant with the same landlord for 7 years and sent in the correct form (with PPS) every year. They sent him a letter dated on the Friday stating that he needed to get the PPS number or his claim would be affected. They cut him off the following monday without even a cursory phonecall to warn him.

The third time was monday just gone. He phoned the local office immediately and was told that he had to send a letter to a PO box number as it was all centralised now. When i was told this i couldnt believe it so i looked into it and there's actually an email address. He eventually got a short email reply stating a clerical error as the reason and that it would be sorted out 'soon'. Im guessing his landlord wont be too pleased when he hears he'll get his rent soon (He's lucky his landlord trusts him and likes him as a tenant).


Anyway, has anyone else experienced this kind of incompetence with our welfare system? Is there any supervisory body he could put a complaint in to? Is Joe Duffy his only option to be heard?

Thanks in advance for any help.

LegacyUser

Your best bet is to email qcs@welfare.ie and make a complaint there. Be as detailed as possible, with names, dates and times, and refrain (although difficult!) from losing the temper in the mail. The best outcome will be an apology but if bus tickets were kept he may be able to claim from the CWO.

Just to comment on the situation, when the main claim is suspended (whether through error or not, there's no way to know in a centralised office with no direct contact with the parent office) then the rent claim will be suspended too. There is incompetence everywhere, not just in the public sector, it just so happened your friend had the bad luck to be a victim of it. I will say that staff in SW offices see a lot of things, and make judgements on this. Sometimes incorrectly, but then again who doesn't make mistakes sometime? Hopefully your friend gets the apology he deserves.

Annasopra

DamagedTrax wrote: »

Anyway, has anyone else experienced this kind of incompetence with our welfare system? Is there any supervisory body he could put a complaint in to?

http://www.ombudsman.gov.ie/en/