Mr S's complaint about Jobcentre Plus
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In Mr S’s case, Jobcentre Plus failed to give him complete information, which led to him receiving less help than he was entitled to.
Background to the complaint
In February 2004 Jobcentre Plus assessed Mr S’s income support claim and noted that he would be better off claiming child tax credit. (Child tax credit was introduced in the 2003-04 tax year. New income support claims made after 6 April 2004 no longer included an element for dependent children as claimants were expected to claim child tax credit instead. Existing claimants could continue to have a dependent children’s element paid as part of their income support until a planned transfer to child tax credit.) Jobcentre Plus asked Mr S’s local office to interview him to discuss the matter. Mr S said he was not invited for an interview and Jobcentre Plus’s records from 2004 have not been retained.
On 9 February 2005 Jobcentre Plus sent a letter to Mr S about increases in benefits from April. The letter said that ‘From October 2004, Child Tax Credit began to replace the amount of Income Support paid to you for your children. Please see the enclosed information for more details about when this change will affect you’. It is likely that the ‘information’ referred to was an undated document that Mr S received which said that the transfer to child tax credit ‘will happen automatically and there is no need for you to fill in a claim form’. Jobcentre Plus say they would have enclosed leaflet INF2 Other help you may be entitled to with the 9 February letter.
In March 2005 Jobcentre Plus noted that as Mr S was receiving the middle rate care component of disability living allowance, his partner was eligible to claim carer’s allowance. In a letter dated 21 March, Jobcentre Plus told Mr S that his partner was ‘required’ to make a claim, and that he should be better off as a result as he might receive carer’s premium. Mr S’s partner duly claimed carer’s allowance, but their combined income was then too high for them to continue to receive income support. On 24 May Jobcentre Plus wrote to tell Mr S that he was not entitled to income support from 26 May (he no longer received any benefit for his dependent children). The letter said an information sheet was enclosed (Jobcentre Plus say this was leaflet INF2).
Mr S’s disability living allowance was reviewed in November 2005. He was awarded the care component at only the lower rate, which ended his partner’s eligibility for carer’s allowance. Mr S reclaimed income support. The income of Mr S and his partner was still too high, and his claim was disallowed on 22 November.
Mr S said he enquired a number of times after his income support ended if he was receiving his full entitlement but said he ‘came up against a brick wall every time’. A friend of Mr S told us that Mr S went to his local Jobcentre Plus office to question his entitlement but was told he was receiving what he was allowed. He said Mr S had then telephoned Jobcentre Plus with the same query but the telephonist hung up on him. (Jobcentre Plus told us that the only record they have of Mr S attending the office dated from February 1996 and that they had no evidence of his telephone calls to them.)
In January 2006 Mr S’s MP wrote to ask Jobcentre Plus if Mr S was receiving his correct entitlement to benefits. On 10 February Mr S applied for child tax credit after being advised to do so by a friend. He was awarded child tax credit backdated to 10 November 2005 (it can only be backdated for three months). Jobcentre Plus replied to the MP on 7 March confirming that Mr S was receiving his full entitlement to benefit, including child tax credit. In April the Ombudsman received Mr S’s complaint.
What we investigated
Our investigation focused on whether Jobcentre Plus had misdirected Mr S about claiming child tax credit, and whether their staff had been rude and unhelpful when he asked them if he was receiving all the benefits he was entitled to.
Mr S said that as a result of Jobcentre Plus’s actions, he had not received child tax credit from 25 May to 10 November 2005, and although his claim for child tax credit had subsequently been backdated, his income at the time had been lower than it should have been, causing stress and making budgeting difficult.
What our investigation found
Jobcentre Plus told Mr S that he would be better off as a result of his partner claiming carer’s allowance, but their letter was incomplete in that it did not say what impact carer’s allowance would (and did) have on his income support. The letter failed to meet the standards set out in DWP’s Public Information Policy Statement. Jobcentre Plus were not appropriately customer focused in ensuring Mr S was clear about his entitlements and responsibilities. That was maladministration.
Was Mr S misdirected about claiming child tax credit? Jobcentre Plus said they first advised him to apply in February 2004, but they could not assure us that Mr S had been invited for an interview. We considered it reasonable to accept that he was not offered an interview. Jobcentre Plus said they would next have sent leaflet INF2 to Mr S in January and September 2004, and 9 February and 24 May 2005. The first three instances either pre-date or coincide with the information Jobcentre Plus sent Mr S on 9 February about the automatic transfer to child tax credit. The fourth leaflet was supposedly sent after they had told Mr S about the transfer, but Mr S said he did not receive it. As he had a good record of trying to ensure he received all the benefits he was entitled to, we concluded it was likely that he had not received the fourth leaflet – if he had, he would have applied for child tax credit then. Also, given that Jobcentre Plus knew that Mr S would not receive the dependent child element of income support from 26 May, having written to him only a few months earlier about the automatic move to child tax credit, it was unreasonable for them not to have told him to apply for child tax credit himself. It was also unreasonable to expect Mr S to deduce from a leaflet (which he may not have received) that Jobcentre Plus’s previous assurance no longer held. We concluded that Jobcentre Plus failed to advise Mr S explicitly to apply for child tax credit. That was maladministration.
We were satisfied that Mr S probably had asked if he was receiving his full benefit entitlement once his eligibility for income support had ended. In line with DWP’s Public Information Policy Statement, when Jobcentre Plus are asked whether a person is receiving their full benefit, they should either provide information about benefits (such as child tax credit) other than those they administer, or make it clear that their advice does not cover such benefits. We found that Mr S was not properly advised when making his enquiries as he would otherwise have applied for child tax credit earlier.
Finally, Mr S was unable to offer any further evidence that Jobcentre Plus staff were rude or unhelpful, so we made no finding on that part of his complaint.
We concluded our investigation in June 2007 and partly upheld the complaint.
Outcome
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