Telephone call from Disability and Carers Service

My husband had Parkinsons Disease diagnosed last September, and has been awarded lowest rate mobility and care allowance.(Nov 2010) I immediately appealed by letter as I consider he should be entitled to the middle care rate which would enable me to apply for carers allowance. A message was left on my answerphone asking me to contact DWP. The lady who left the message had left for the day, and I spoke to her colleague. She advised me that I could not claim middle care rate, because my husband did not require overnight care. When I said that was incorrect, she said "Oh sorry I have the wrong file" She said she would get her colleauge to ring me the next day, which she did. Her colleague advised me that there was now no longer middle rate care allowance, and when I disputed this, I was told that she had made a mistake. 2 weeks ago I sent them a letter updating them on my husbands condition after an appointment with a Consultant Neuroligist who informed us that he thought my husband had ATypical Parkinsons Disease which is a more serious and complicated form of the illness. The DWP said they had'nt received this letter and would send me a S.A.E.so I could send them a copy.
I am highly suspicous that they are trying it on with claimants, as two DWP employees are giving out the wrong info about middle rate care allowance.

I think you are right! it never ceases to amaze me how inefficient some DWP staff can be. I wish you well with your claim

As in all professions there are inefficient staff and the DWP are no exception.

However, one of the main problems is that due to cut backs in DWP staff, with more to come in future, staff with little or no experience are being transferred to offices which deal with benefits they know little about, and which they have
no training.

Hence Lorraine receiving conflicting and inaccurate information on DLA care component. From my experience such inaccurate information wouldn't be given to a claimant wilfully.

DWP call centre's work on targets, or more precisely one target: call numbers. Each telephony worker is expected to take no more than 4 mins on each call to make up their numbers.

Higher call numbers are achieved by means of peremptory assessment of case details, failure to use internal CIS resources and poor note-keeping, as well as 'saying anything to get them off the phone' alleges my DWP source, who still steadfastly refuses to go on the record.

As Line managers have only call numbers to judge productivity, limited training and few if any able to touch-type, callers should be precise, have all relevant information to hand and not expect their call to last longer than 4 minutes.

If anything is sent by post, send recorded, and keep copies; thousands of pieces of paper are misplaced daily and records are not entered as routinely as one may expect, alleges my source.