Complaint Review: Department for Work and Pensions

Firstly let me start off my report by saying I am homeless and have been of no fixed abode for the period of two years after I was evicted from my home by the local authorities for a period when I was suffering from deep anxiety & depression and was being medicated by my doctor.

During that time my Cat died over Christmas, I was spiraling into depression and made an application to the Department for Work and Pensions on the 10th November 2008 requesting financial aid as I had just been re-housed and was informed I could apply for a Care Grant or Social Loan to help.

I received there reply on the 24th of November which stipulated I was not eligible for a Care grant as they only provided that service to people that had just been re-housed.

During which time I was being hounded by the local authority for Council Taxes which I did not owe them as I was in receipt of both Housing & Council Tax benefits.

However that did not stop the demands for sums in excess of 200.00 which at the time I did not owe them.

Then to make matters worse during that Winter period my heating in the run down appalling excuse for housing that they housed me in, needing to be repaired, by the time I finally lost my cool with them and exploded both verbally and physically I was served with a notice of eviction which I appealed against and was informed that at the review of the case I would have a fair & impartial hearing from senior officers who where not involved in the decision to evict me from my home.

I later found out this was a complete fabrication as the senior officers who where supposed to be impartial where indeed the same people signing the court documents to have me removed from housing and as far as I am aware when I left the heating was still not working.

So I quit the property and spent the next few years living rough, sleeping homeless, squatting desperately trying to find work and get myself back off the streets.

Two years later and a family member offered to help me, saying I could come and stay with them for a while whilst searching for employment. I graciously accepted there offer, informed the Department for Work & Pensions of the care of address I could be contacted at.

Now the local authority are threatening that family member with demands for Council Taxes for the period's from March onwards, a period which if my memory serves me correctly I was actually employed and working out of the country. Not even living with themselves at the address in question.

That family member is also sadly in receipt of Benefits. So now that they are being hounded themselves for money which they do not owe the local authority and I am now being asked to leave and go back to sleeping rough on the streets. Largely due to the fact that the Department for Work & Pensions chooses to help the homeless by offering them financial support, whilst the local authority in question then seems hell bent on taking any finances it can for services that a homeless individual has no need of. I don't vote, I have no need of there recycling service, I do not use the local bin's nor do I need any rubbish collected.

In fact I have nothing but the shirt on my back and the pittance the Department for Work & Pensions says that I require to find suitable employment and due to the loss of sleep, the countless hours of anxiety and once again being on happy pills that are psychologically and physically addictive I have lost employment after finding it.

It seems that after Christmas I must return to living on the streets, because the British government chooses to give aid to it's citizens with one hand, then seems hell bent on snatching it back with the other.