LPA and DWP

[Arya Stark]

Hi. My name is Diane and I thought I’d share my experience of LPA…my nephew who is 40 is now in a nursing home. He has famiIial Alzheimers disease, I needed to speak to the DWP (universal credits) as his benefits had been stopped due to him not filling in the online journal….
So I rang them… they would not discuss anything with me as I was not down as an appointee…. I told them that I have LPA….I was happy for them to view the LPA online…, but they still would not talk to me and put the phone down!!
I continued to ring, contacted the OPG, to clarify that i had the legal right to talk to them….yes off course they said… but I was getting nowhere…. Even with the LPA I was told I needed to be an appointee….so the appointee application was put in progress…which can take weeks and involves a visiting officer to come to my house to make sure I am the right person…
Anyhow, the officer rang yesterday… as soon as I mentioned I had LPA, he said that was all I needed, and proceeded to view the LPA on line… he is going to speak to UC and has said they will contact me….
There is therefore something very wrong with the DWP/UC. They quite clearly have been told to only discuss any issues with an appointee…this needs addressing as I’m sure other people will be experiencing the same thing….
Thank you for reading….

 

[Louise7]

Hello @Arya Stark and welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear that your nephew has Alzheimer's at such a young age but you'll find lots of friendly support here. It's a pity that it took so long for you to get through to someone who understood about LPA's, it must have been very frustrating for you, but well done for persevering. I haven't had any problems using an LPA when speaking to the attendance allowance or pensions teams but perhaps the Universal Credit team are less familiar with them? Hopefully the officer who did understand and is going to speak to them will ensure that your nephew's benefit will be reinstated quickly and that they deal with this situation better in future.

 

[sdmhred]

I’m afraid that’s often the experience of the DWP. if you don’t get joy first time round I would always call again as you might strike lucky the second time round. The system leaves much to be desired I’m afraid