I am in the fortunate postion to be under a sanction from the DWP and as a result I have not been able to attend a couple of interviews.
The reason for the sanction is that I didn’t apply for a job that the DWP sent me, but I live in a house with a shared letter box and didn’t get the letter in time.
What are the chances of having the samction reversed? (It has been reduced from 26 weeks to 8 weeks).
Is it worth complaining?
The DWP employee I have to deal with is incompetent to the highest level, telling untruths and giving misleading info.
For my sanity, please help.

Visit the CAB and get some advice.I would also send a strong letter of explanation and complaint to the local DWP manager and my MP.As they have reduced your sanction it sounds like they know they’ve screwed up.They are trying to save money.You must fight them.Have you applied for an emergency payment to help you through.DWP used to pay for interview expenses.Have you investigated support in that area?Good luck.

Document and Escalate, ask to speak to a manager ASAP. Ask about formal appeals and complaints procedures.

As with all forms of the public sector paperwork is key. There is every chance they don’t know where there’s is.

If you think your sanity is at stake,go see you.r Doctor.You may get on the sick and escape the Barstewards.

Write to your MP. From what I gather you are looking for work but you are being told you can not because of an administration error? Madness.

In fact write to the local paper as well. “Government keeping man unemployed because of lost letter!”.

😐

We had an issue with our last local council, we fought and fought, but got nowhere. So, we went to our MP, the council apologised, backed down, and revised their procedures. Don’t ever give up if you hold the moral high ground.

proper advice:

you can appeal the sanction, in writing, within a month of the decision. you would need to show good cause, and not getting the letter should be seen as good cause. have you had problems with other post not getting to you? if so, that makes your case more believable.

the last appeal I did that was similar to this ended with the judge stating my client was reasonably credible. she was very proud of that description 🙂

David, drop me an email (in my profile). I have a friend who worked at the DWP in Edinburgh for 13 years and was a union rep. He now represents various union cases and might be able to give some advice, although I appreciate it’s not a union issue…

Cheers,
Kit

oh, and theres no point in complaining, they simply don’t care and it will change nothing

apply to the DWP for both a freedom of information request regardng all correspondance on your case and also a data protection file on your case, its free, and you will be surprised what you may find out.

As for the shared letter box, sometimes people find it funny or nasty to others mail, as do the post office who fail to deliver some letters.

Update:
Thanks for the freedom of information request info project. It arrived and wa quite interesting reading and the hand written comments were particularly interesting. Requests were sent to the local JobCentrePuss and the appeals centre.
Yesterday I got a call from the appeals centre to clarify and ask a few more questions. The nice lady tried twisting a couple of thinks so blame fell on me. I remained firmly behind my argument and stated that the appeal would be continuing as I had done no wrong.
The upshot is that the JobCentrePuss could have given me a copy of the job, I could have applied for the job and the sanction would not have been needed but the JobCentrePuss lied by saying deadline for applying had passed.
Sanction reduced to 0 days and I’m waiting for lost money to be returned.
Thanks for the words of encouragement people. 😀

Did you apply for an emergency loan? Refuse to pay it back.Or demand interest on the money they stole from you.Also complain to Sec of State.This will get you left zone in the future.Well done.

JobCentrePuss looks annoyed now