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Universal credit claim closed

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jemimatrue
jemimatrue Community member Posts: 3 Listener
Hi, sorry in advance for the long question .

My daughter is on universal credit and has been declared unfit for work and unfit to look for work. (She has severe anxiety, depression and autism) Her grandfather is her appointee as she isn't able to manage things like that alone. However, she was told that she had to go to the job centre to create a universal credit online account. We went in, they asked for certain things that we didn't have but forwarded on to them within their given time limit. They have told her that she needs to keep checking in on the UC website, though I made it very clear to them that she becomes extremely agitated and panicked when she is forced to do so. If she wasn't forced she wouldn't think to do it or would get scared of it, and would probably kill herself because she gets sanctioned.

She has had a couple of communications from the DWP, demanding that she send information to them that we already told them she didn't yet have, and a threat of sanctions along with it . When she read it, she was so terrified that if I hadn't been with her I believe she would have committed suicide. The DWP are aware of her disabilities and mental state .I replied on Beth's UC account that she isn't supposed to be receiving any communication from them due to her very fragile state and the risk involved, and that all communication should be with her appointee. We received a reply telling us that we need to enter her appointee's email address .We saw the request about a week later (her grandfather had a stroke in that time) so changed the email address. A week later my daughter saw a message on her UC messages saying that she failed to send information, and her claim has been closed .There was nothing asking for anything other than her grandfather's email address . No threat of sanctions if it wasn't provided soon enough, and no date that it had to be done by. This message was marked as being sent to us half an hour before we inputted her GFs email address, though now as her claim has been closed we cannot access her account at all. Might they have closed her claim after we gave the new email, but recorded the time as before? I don't know how we could have accessed her diary to change the email if her xlaim had already been closed.

Also, are they allowed to badger someone with serious and life threatening mental health problems when it has been on record that she has an appointee for her own safely? Are they allowed to sanction her because she didn't provide information even though they didn't tell her that it's sanctionable or that there was a time limit for her to input it onto the system? I daren't tell her that she has had her claim closed down, I'm so worried that she'll hurt herself. And I don't know where to even start with trying to speak to someone about it.

I would really appreciate some advice about what to do.
Thank you for reading my question

Comments

  • Pippa_Alumni
    Pippa_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 5,793 Disability Gamechanger
    edited January 2019
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    Hi @jemimatrue, and a warm welcome to the community!

    Thank you for sharing this with us, and I'm so sorry to hear about all you've been through as a family. I'm even more sorry that this process has been so distressing for your daughter. 

    We have some experienced community members and advisors who will be in touch soon and hopefully able to offer some guidance. If we can be of any assistance in the meantime do let us know.

    Does your daughter have mental health support in place at the moment? It may be a good idea to make any medical professionals involved in her care aware of the situation.
  • jemimatrue
    jemimatrue Community member Posts: 3 Listener
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    Hi Pippa, thank you for replying. She is working with restart, which is a support service connected to the home treatment team. She contacted the crisis team about a year ago because she was so unwell, and they worked with her for a while, diagnosed her with BPD and eventually passed her on to restart. I will tell her restart worker, thank you :)
  • cracker
    cracker Community member Posts: 324 Pioneering
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    I don't know your system, but I sorry you are under such stress when your daughter is obviously very ill. As a mother, it must be very upsetting to deal with all this.

    I do hope it all works out for you both
  • jemimatrue
    jemimatrue Community member Posts: 3 Listener
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    Thank you so much, cracker and mikehughes ☺️
  • hello20
    hello20 Community member Posts: 98 Connected
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    Hi can I ask if her claim was re opened after mandotary reconsideration as I’m in the same situation 

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