Someone I met while networking once cast doubt on the business model for Grey Matters Consultancy, and asked me why vulnerable people needed a form filling service when they could get their family to do it for them or speak to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau for help. If only life were that simple! If only the claim forms for Attendance Allowance and other benefits were that simple! The fact is, not everyone has family close by or capable of helping them filling in the benefit claim form; with Council’s seeking to make budget savings some CAB facilities are under threat of closure, plus being staffed by volunteers makes the process of getting the correct help challenging in some circumstance.
Everyone who works at Grey Matters Consultancy is an expert at navigating government bureaucracy and form filling. It’s what we do every day and you can be sure that we’ll pursue your claim, if we think it’s valid, as far as we can. This often means having to deal with the Department of Work and Pension’s (DWP) Call Centre. Sadly, even for us, getting the timely response and the correct advice from the DWP can prove challenging. Why? Well, just read this article from an anonymous DWP call-centre agent which explains how the scripts they have to follow, the time limits they’re placed under and how a lack of training makes claiming a benefit a challenging process. Remember that these are benefits that people are entitled to, benefits that will make a real difference to the life of a vulnerable person – perhaps someone with limited mobility or a terminal illness.
The content of the article doesn’t shock me at all and I’ve got a number of stories I can recount of where I’ve either been given the wrong information or simply hung up on whilst speaking to the DWP on behalf of a client. I know of situations where the DWP have put the phone down on people because it’s taken them too long to get the bank statements from their drawer – for the call-centre agent this just took too long and would have affected their performance rating. In this example, it was a man who has kidney dialysis 3 times a week and is driven by a neighbour more than 50 miles there and back each time. We know from experience that when you contact the DWP you have to have all the information at hand
Remember that person I mentioned at the start who doubted what Grey Matters Consultancy does for the elderly and vulnerable? They used us to fill in Attendance Allowance claim forms for their parents-in-law. At a time when a family is in crisis and vulnerable, the right kind of help is needed, and that’s where we come in. When people are caring for sick relatives and making frequent visits, not knowing if this might be the last time they see someone, the thought of filling in a 34-page claim form (46-page if you do it offline) and gathering the required supporting documentation is just a step too far.
Our success rate speaks for itself.
