Loan Ranger
Posted on 19 Jun 2007 3:33 am (Report this annotation)

What's the purpose of this question? Did Jim Plaskitt make this one up himself and then hand it to his friend to ask him! This member of the government bowls an easy one to his hon. friend and deliberately aims wide of the wicket. The "Actual Average Clearance Times" for Crisis Loans only cover the time between the phone call to the "Benefits Delivery Centre" being answered, and the decision being taken. The phone lines are frequently engaged for lengthy periods of time, meaning that clients and advisers are simply unable to get through and start the claiming process.
The recent (prepared 23 May 2007) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/c... Committee on Work and Pensions Sixth Report gives a totally different and far more realistic perspective than that which the Minister gave by this often repeated answer.
(Incidentally; I note that three people answered "Yes" to the option "Does this answer the above question?" I'd love to know who they are, it couldn't be the Ministers for the DWP and the Chief Executive of "Jobcentre Plus" [Jim Murphy M.P., James Plaskitt M.P. and Ms. Lesley Strathie] could it?
By way of contrast;
The Independent Review Service, for example, found:

"there are substantial and widespread problems for customers trying to apply for a Crisis Loan by telephone. These include:
o "the inability to get through on the Crisis Loan Direct telephone number to make an application;
o "inappropriate corroborative evidence demanded routinely by Crisis Loan Direct decision makers, such as police crime numbers where the applicant has lost his money, before an application is accepted;
o "the refusal of payments for reasons that are not legally sound, for example, because the applicant has not had a work focused interview;
o "the failure to record a decision to refuse an award which means the applicant has no right to a review;
o "the difficulties people face getting to a Jobcentre to collect a payment following a successful telephone application, especially in rural areas; and
o "no facility to make a review request by telephone, thus preventing the urgent review of such cases."

Sir Richard Tilt added that "We have many stories of people who spend all day ringing 100 times before they get through." (My comment: Try doing this on a public phone on a cold wet day!)

There are also other issues arising from the "one size fits all" telephone claims system's inappropriateness to the needs of society's more vulnerable members such as those with physical or mental impairment, the homeless and dispossessed, those in hostels, hospital and those leaving residential care or H.M.P. custody. I have yet to be persuaded that any government of any political hue could give a damn about them given that they are less likely to pay income tax and contributions, or bother to vote. In fact, the system only seems to fit the needs of those least likely to to have a need of it, such as Essex man and Worcester woman in their centrally heated homes with internet access and telephones. These are the sorts of people who voted New Labour® into power.

I am also aware that Jobcentre Plus frequently (and unlawfully*) refuses to deal with clerical claims made using their own sf401 application form (available from their web-site), or to allow "face to face" claims to be made.

*Social Fund Bulletin 09/02 (10) states that it is a "mandatory requirement" that clients "not be compelled to provide the details to populate an application for a loan by phone. They must always be offered the option of a face to face interview."

*The Social Fund (Applications) Regs 1988 - as amended state: -

Form and manner in which an application is to be made

2.(1) "Except in the case of an application referred to in regulation 2A,". Every application for a payment out of the social fund under section 32(2)(b) of the Act (payment to meet needs other than in prescribed circumstances) shall be made in writing, on a form approved by the Secretary of State and completed in accordance with the instructions on that form, or in such other manner, being in writing, as the Secretary of State may accept as sufficient in the circumstances of any particular case.

(2) Forms of application shall be supplied, without charge, by such persons as the Secretary of State may appoint or authorise for that purpose.

(3) Every application shall be delivered or sent to an appropriate office.

Reg 2A amended the original regs to allow for claims to be made by phone but, as is evident, reg 2 retains the right to make a clerical claim.

The select committee report goes on to say that; "during this inquiry we have been presented with evidence of many of the same problems that existed in 2001: outdated distribution of budgets, inaccurate decisions, lack of consistency and poor management information. There is still not enough money in the Community Care Grant budget for all those who have been assessed as having a high priority need, a situation the Social Fund Commissioner described as "unacceptable". We have also received complaints arising from the Government's attempts at reform, particularly surrounding the telephony and application process for Crisis Loans. We heard of Crisis Loan applicants whose "fingers ached from pressing the redial button".

We are concerned that the resourcing of the Social Fund is inadequate to remedy the situation in terms of both staff numbers and training. There has been no formal consultation process on reform with no timetable for improvements. We are disappointed that the debate has moved on so little in the six years since the Social Security Committee's 2001 report.

On a different subject:
Sorry to all the cyclism supporters who were kind enough to check out the "bike_lane" picture which was previously on my web server. Unfortunately I lost it while incompetently upgrading (to FTP, mail host and an SSL option prior to creating an anonymous proxy server for the use of those such as our friends beyond the "Great Firewall of China" - it was all geek to me!) If anyone downloaded and saved the hi-res version of the pic, then please email it to me so that I can re-fill the empty links in my previous posts.

Loan Ranger http://86.7.209.9/Joomla/