OK where do I start, firstly I been with bt for 10 years and never asked for help with my bill until this last week and to be honest I wish I'd never bothered because of the stress and anxiety it has caused me, because of covid and the cost of living rise I was advised by a debt charity to apply for the bt essential package which I did and the package was refused because I'm not the benefit claimant, my partner is the benefits claimant and she claims for me, as the law stands there can only be one claimant if you are a couple, and because we are on legacy benefits still and I'm disabled my partner claims for both of us, even though she claims for me I'm not classed as a claimant of a qualifying benefit, I rang the DWP and explained to them the problems I'm having with bt home Essentials package and they were understanding to the point they sent out an official government letter stating that my partner was claiming the required benefits for my self included in the letter are our national insurance numbers which bt uses to verify elegibility for the home essentials package, but guess what? This official letter wasn't suitable and I was back at the beginning trying to get help with my bills, I was then put thru to a manager for help and Wow what a rude and unhelpful arrogant person he was and he was not offering me any help at all stating I signed the contract for 2 years for broadband services, and by the way I felt like I was pushed into the contract to keep my prices low and if I didn't take the new contract my prices would go up, even though I have been a customer for 10 years and seen many contracts out with bt, I also asked to add my partner onto the bt account and was told it would cost me £800 pound to clear the contract and setup a new account in both our names which basically defeats the idea of asking for help, so the moral of the story is bt are offering the help but if you're a couple and you're partner is the benefit claimant and not on the account you're stuffed as no help at all was offered even though we are struggling with debt, and because we can not claim benefits individually by law bt are discriminating against disabled people that can not claim benefits in their own right, because of all the hassle with bt we are now being pushed into a debt relief order to get some form of help, which is a route I do not want to take, so I would like to thank bt for being so unsupportive towards a customer who is asking for help.
I will also be following this matter up with ofcom as well due to the nature of this issue.
