Putting things right: complaints and learning from DWP - the ...

Mrs M’s complaint about Jobcentre Plus
In Mrs M’s case, problems arose because Jobcentre Plus had not ensured that Coroners’ Offices
provided correct information about bereavement benefit; as a result Mrs M fell through a gap in the
system and missed the opportunity to claim over a thousand pounds to which she would have been
entitled.
Background to the complaint
Mrs M’s husband died suddenly in December 2004.
The death was reported to the Coroner’s Office
which issued the Ministry of Justice’s leaflet When
sudden death occurs. Several months later Mrs M
learnt that she could have applied for bereavement
benefit, which includes a lump sum bereavement
payment and bereavement allowance which is
paid for up to 52 weeks after the date of death.
In August 2005 Mrs M applied for and received
the bereavement payment. She was also awarded
bereavement allowance backdated three months
(the maximum allowed) to 1 May 2005.
She then unsuccessfully appealed against
the decision not to backdate the award to
December 2004, and so lost 18 weeks’ entitlement
to bereavement allowance.
In November 2005 Mrs M complained to
Jobcentre Plus that they had treated her unfairly
and asked them to compensate her for the lost
bereavement allowance. She said she had been
treated differently from a person registering a
death at a Register Office; if she had received
from the Coroner’s Office the same information
that Register Offices supply she would have
made a timely claim for bereavement allowance.
Jobcentre Plus’s reply did not respond directly
to Mrs M’s compensation request, but said that
the procedures then in place in Coroners’ Offices
‘appeared to cover all eventualities’.
Mrs M complained to the Ombudsman, through
her MP, about Jobcentre Plus. We referred the
matter back to Jobcentre Plus in September 2006
for investigation. They asked the Department
for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) to contribute a
response to the MP. In October Jobcentre Plus told
the MP that Mrs M’s benefit had been backdated
as far as the law allowed; that the leaflet Mrs M
had received from the Coroners Office pointed her
towards Jobcentre Plus; and that Coroners’ Offices
also held copies of DWP’s leaflet D49 on what to
do after a death. Jobcentre Plus said Mrs M could
request compensation if she felt there had been
maladministration.
The Minister of State at DCA wrote to the MP, in
November 2006, referring to the leaflet When
sudden death occurs, and said that the leaflet had
referred to the fact that copies of leaflet D49 could
be obtained from Jobcentre Plus. The Minister
added that the next time DCA reprinted their own
leaflet they would consider revising it to point out
that ‘time limits apply and claimants should be
aware that if they are late in applying they could
lose the right to benefit’. In December Mrs M asked
Jobcentre Plus for compensation. She enclosed
a copy of the Minister’s letter which she said
clearly indicated that DCA ‘considered the present
situation to be unacceptable’. Jobcentre Plus
refused Mrs M’s request for compensation, saying
that ‘it is not accepted that the Department has
made a mistake with your claim’.
In May 2007 Mrs M asked Jobcentre Plus to
review their decision. They upheld their decision,
explaining in a letter that the onus was on the
customer to enquire about potential entitlement
to benefits and to claim within the time limits. In
response to Mrs M’s complaint that she had been
Putting things right: complaints and learning from DWP | March 2009 57