17 January 2007
Dear Rt. Hon. Sir, James Plaskitt M.P.,
I was recently visited by a destitute and vulnerable neighbour who asked
for the use of my phone to call a 0800 toll free number in order to apply
for a Social Fund Crisis Loan (link to DWP information web page).
Although the page (link above) advises applicants to contact their nearest
"Jobcentre Plus" (or "JC+"), she was told by her "JC+" interviewer that
the sole available method was via telephone to the toll free number. So,
the this begs the question; is it the DWP, or the "JC+", who is to be believed?
A simple enough question which could be easily answered by any Junior Clerk
in your department, however, may I respectfully prevail upon you to read
the entire email because I think the circumstances and events surrounding
this case demand that you should be apprised of them.
My neighbour needed the loan to tide her over whilst awaiting processing
and payment of her Income Support, which had been delayed due to her Doctor's
having written the word "indeterminate" as the duration of her sick-note,
whereas a calendar date is required (probably by the computer) for admin.
purposes. She also has her leg in a plaster cast up to the thigh and hobbles
along on two crutches whilst in constant pain. When she asked the "JC+"
interviewer if she was allowed to use their phone they refused her permission.
0800 calls dialed using a mobile phone network are not toll free (as you
will be aware) and she was broke. (In the interest of fairness to "JC+",
please note that I'm not aware whether the broken leg came before or after
the "JC+" visit!). My neighbour has spent many years in Foster Care but
has managed to lead a life of honesty and good morals whereas others in similar
circumstances have fallen into anti-social behaviours. She currently has
no visible means of financial support e.g. from family.
On the 11th of January my neighbour sought to use the public phone nearest
to her domicile but found it had been vandalised beyond use, which is why
she came to my door. In my presence she dialled and re-dialled but all she
could get was an answering service message telling her that the staff were
all busy and to try again later, and then the phone would hang-up, hence
the need to continually re-dial. (couldn't they have call queuing)
After an hour of this with no prospect of dismissing her whilst keeping my
conscience clear, I perused the DWP web pages for a viable alternative, whereby
I found the correct download - able/printable sf401 form (link to sf401.pdf).
In view of the fact that what the "JC+" had told my neighbour was at odds
with the DWP advice, I telephoned the "JC+" for clarification. What followed
left me flabbergasted.
The first "JC+" employee I spoke to said that they didn't accept sf401
claims from the public, and when I explained about the DWP advice, I was
told that it was wrong and neither did she know who processes said claims.
At my behest, I was able to speak with another employee further up in the
organisational hierarchy who might be able to answer my questions, but she
too couldn't help and said that we ought to "persevere" on the ansaphone
line. "But no-one ever answers", I protested. To which she exclaimed, "another
recent claimant spent two entire days persisting and he got through in the
end!", which I think she intended as a defense, however, it seemed more like
own goal on her part from my viewpoint. At this point I was offered the assistance
of the Supervisor who, after a certain amount of obfuscation, turned out
to be kind and helpful. She began by repeating what the two others had already
said and then later went on to claim that, "the system does work, because
I've dealt with three such claims today." (Own goal #2, n'est-ce-pas? seeing
as they'd all said that they didn't deal with these claims). I refuted her
statement on the grounds that there was no figure being kept of the could
be claimants who (daunted by the inordinate ansaphone bottleneck) simply
give up, and that her statistic was meaningless because it was devoid of
a numeric base with which to qualify it as a fact, ie 3/3, 3/10, 3/100 etc.
After this she talked with my neighbour and offered to interview her and
enter the claim details onto the computer that day.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Assuring you of my highest esteem
and kindest regards. Yours sincerely,
L. Ranger.
First link in full: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/crisis_loans.asp
Second: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/claimforms/sf401_print.pdf
For more information visit the web-site at:
http://loanranger.no-ip.org/crisis%20loan/
(this line added 11/12/2007) L.R.