turned down 4 JSA because we r 'living together as partners' advice needed please

lauraw78 · 16 September 2005 at 3:30PM

Just recieved a letter todaysaying they will not be awarding me jsa because it has been decided that I am still living with my ex partner as husband and wife. They have decided this I have found after calling to find out why, because of the whole household thing, and that my ex is basically financing me (even though I have no money of my own to feed myself etc and no family to help me out) also because we have two kids together, basically I am going to take it to appeal, but they need extra evidence to support the claim we are not living together as husband and wife! How on earth do you prove something like that when we are not married (therefore no legal documents), any advice would be greatfully appreciated.

BenefitMaster · 16 September 2005 at 3:40PM

lauraw78 wrote:

Just recieved a letter todaysaying they will not be awarding me jsa because it has been decided that I am still living with my ex partner as husband and wife. They have decided this I have found after calling to find out why, because of the whole household thing, and that my ex is basically financing me (even though I have no money of my own to feed myself etc and no family to help me out) also because we have two kids together, basically I am going to take it to appeal, but they need extra evidence to support the claim we are not living together as husband and wife! How on earth do you prove something like that when we are not married (therefore no legal documents), any advice would be greatfully appreciated.

Appeal - make it clear you will; continue to appeal to the SS Tribunal if needed, and suggest that you will got o court to get an iterim decision and money if they don;t change thweir mind. Make it clear you want the decision backdated to your TAM date, and expect interest on the sum when it is paid. They will often cave.

APPEAL, APPEAL, APPEAL.

FairyElephant_2 · 16 September 2005 at 3:44PM

How maddening for you!

Now I am concerned myself too......I am about to be made redundant, and had not considered that I might be turned down for benefits because I am living with B/F.

I have worked all my life and never claimed any benefits before, but if I don't get a job straight away I will need money to live on.
B/F and I share all household costs straight down the middle, and as he has 3 kids from a previous relationship he pays quite a lot in maintennace to his ex-wife, so he will not be able to support me (nor would I want him to!).

Do let us know how you get on with appeal.

Best of luck,

FE

callansdad · 16 September 2005 at 4:01PM

I am currently on maternity leave which is due to end the middle of next month. The shop that i worked for closed down in July, making me redundant. I am currently filling out forms to take them to a tribunal, they never gave me any notice (unless you count getting your P45 a week later in the post!) and they didn't award me any redundancy pay!

My partner has a decent wage but it is all sucked up by debts, direct debits, council tax and £170pm on petrol for commuting. My friend informed me that i wouldn't be entitled to JSA. I am looking for another job but it is difficult. He works shifts and i'm breastfeeding my 5 month old - she won't take a bottle or cup! If i can't find another job then all that we will have to live off of is £28.40 pw child benefit. I can't claim CTC as they over paid us this year and last so i'm owe them money.

I wan't to start childminding, this would solve a lot of problems but after moving into a new home in April we have discovered that EVERYTHING is wrong with it! From floors to roof! We currently have a toilet and a sink, no bath/shower, no kitchen and no carpets on the floors (these had to get ripped out to treat wet rot and woodworm). My partner is trying to plumb in a kitchen sink as we speak so I can at least wash some dishes. Childminding is completely out of the question when your home resembles a building site!

Surely there must be some help available!

Sorry this quick reply has turned into a long rant!

lauraw78 · 16 September 2005 at 4:32PM

BenefitMaster wrote:

Appeal - make it clear you will; continue to appeal to the SS Tribunal if needed, and suggest that you will got o court to get an iterim decision and money if they don;t change thweir mind. Make it clear you want the decision backdated to your TAM date, and expect interest on the sum when it is paid. They will often cave.

APPEAL, APPEAL, APPEAL.

I am going to appeal, but they want extra evidence, this is on top of them being told everything already....bloody annoying, you try to do everything above board....the girl actually told me the only other option was for my ex to claim benefits for me again.....as my partner?!? so shes basically told me that for telling the truth I CANT HAVE ANY MONEY, but for lying I will...totally bizarre!
Anyway, gonna go and work my brain for any extra evidence I could poissibly give them, any suggestions would be appreciated :-)
Thanks already for the replies!

Oh, another thing she said, if the appeal gets turned down, and it goes to a tribunal, I still have to sign on every 2 weeks otherwise I wont get it backdated, even though I may still not get any money......just how stupid is this whole system?

shelly · 16 September 2005 at 6:01PM

What kind of JSA did you claim for? I currently receive contribution based. I live with my husband who works full time and they never once questioned his salary. The only reason I can think of for them to deny you JSA is if you claimed income-based. Then any money he brings into the household is counted. If you can't get JSA could you get income support?

shelly · 16 September 2005 at 6:11PM

FairyElephant wrote:

How maddening for you!

Now I am concerned myself too......I am about to be made redundant, and had not considered that I might be turned down for benefits because I am living with B/F.

I have worked all my life and never claimed any benefits before, but if I don't get a job straight away I will need money to live on.
B/F and I share all household costs straight down the middle, and as he has 3 kids from a previous relationship he pays quite a lot in maintennace to his ex-wife, so he will not be able to support me (nor would I want him to!).

Do let us know how you get on with appeal.

Best of luck,

FE

Hi FE.

I am currently receiving contribution based JSA after being made redundant too. There are two types of JSA you can claim,but you can't claim either of them straight away if you receive payment in lieu of notice or redundancy pay. For example....I got 2 weeks in lieu of notice and 5 weeks redundancy pay so I couldn't claim JSA for seven weeks,but I made them aware of the situation and put the forms in for processing so that when my 7 weeks was up my claim had already been accepted. You can claim contribution based if you have worked for the last 3 tax yrs and that only takes you into account. If you claim income based that takes into account all money coming into the house. You should be ok to get benefits....if they refuse,question it. They refused me at first saying I hadn't waited my seven weeks and had to wait seven weeks again. I argued it and could prove I had been into the office 7 weeks prior as a note had been put on the system. Good luck

shelly

chugalug · 16 September 2005 at 10:30PM

IMO they have to prove that you are living together as husband and wife - its not up to you to prove you don't. How do you prove a negative? Put in your basic appeal stating you need time to take further advice and request a copy of their reasons for stating you are LTHW. This preserves the time limit for the appeal which I believe is one month from the date on their decision letter. Make sure you keep a copy and send the appeal by special delivery. Then immediately go to the CAB and see if you can get to see a welfare benefits adviser. HTH

stellagypsy · 17 September 2005 at 8:46AM

Chugalug - the onus is ALWAYS on the claimant to prove their claim ie that what they are saying is the correct state of affairs. If the DSS/DWP/whoever don't beleive the claimant or the stated facts do not "tick all the right boxes", the claim will be declined every time.

The OP needs to find out the rules about what constitutes NOT living together as man and wife - I worked at DSS years ago and there were quite clear guidelines for staff to follow to make that decision when presented with this situation - eg from obvious stuff like not sharing a bed to things like buying your own food and keeping it separate, preparing your meals separetely, doing your own laundry/ironing, paying separate bills, etc - you literally DO have to prove that you are not co-habiting, and it can be very difficult.

CAB or simlar may be able to tell you what the "rules" are, or it may help to get someone like that behind you as you will find it very difficult to prove this, espeicially as they have already turned you down.

The OP should definately appeal but get your facts right and have something to throw at them or they will throw it out again.

HTH, Stella xx

loobyloose · 17 September 2005 at 10:10AM

well i had that problem, even moved out to a little flat, after a while they stopped all money and i had to pay back a whole years benefits, council tax and housing benefit. You will not get anywhere telling the truth, cos thats what i did, i told the truth.
Have got back together with husband and everythings fine now, but for them to believe you, you'll have to start divorce proceedings and if you cant move out at least have a seperate room with bed etc.. with a lock on the door and get them to come round and check.

you've got a battle on your hands.

lauraw78 · 17 September 2005 at 11:22AM

Its a bit more difficult when you have 2 children, do they really expect us to be completely seperate from each other when we have 2 small children..... and there are somethings that cant be avoided because I have no money at all, so he has to buy me food, I dont see how this is going to get turned around! I will appeal, but if they knock that back I will go no further with it, I will just be back at square one though with no hope of moving on at all!

BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS REPLIED :-)

turned down 4 JSA because we r 'living together as partners' advice needed please

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free