JSA Hardship Payments

Hi Guys,

Just wondered if anyone can help me.

My husband and I have been jointly claiming Income Based JSA since the end of last year.

My husband went into an agency and enquired about a job rather than telephoning and is now subject to a dis-allowance for 6 months as he didn't apply for the job exactly how it was on the print out he was given.

We received a letter on 28th Jan dated 27th Jan advising the dis-allowance would apply from 11th Jan until 11th July.

We have applied for hardship payments and have been granted however we asked for it to be backdated but this has been refused and they will only pay us from 8th Feb.

Now I realise that the first 2 weeks you don't get any money, however this is 4 weeks.

When I queried this with the jobcentre advised that hardship decisions cannot be appealed.

I'm not the kind of person to moan but this has literally brought me to tears. We don't have any savings and when i was working we never had a lot of money anyways but i'm in despair i really dont know what to do.

How can we live off £51.85 per week?

And even when his hardship starts we'll only get £76.57 per week.

We have applied to our LA for further help with HB as we are currently asking us to pay £18pw but theres no guarantee they will help us.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

(Other than get a job because believe me I hate being on benefits and I am trying my hardest)

Comments

  • MrsManda
    MrsManda Posts: 4,457 Forumite
    mrshurt86 wrote: »
    We have applied for hardship payments and have been granted however we asked for it to be backdated but this has been refused and they will only pay us from 8th Feb.

    Now I realise that the first 2 weeks you don't get any money, however this is 4 weeks.

    I would ask if you can appeal the sanction if it really is a case that he enquired about a job by attending an agency rather than calling - how do they know what he did and why was going into the office not acceptable if calling was?

    Hardship payments are paid either from the 15th day of the suspension or from the day the claimant is considered to be in hardship, which ever is later.

    From the information you've given you don't fall into vulnerable group (i.e. children, disability, carer...) so you don't automatically count as being in hardship. You should be able to get a statement of how the Decision Maker decided on the date of your hardship.

    The DM should take into consideration:
    Resources available
    Essential Items and the likely effect of not receiving these items for a short period of time.

    You can find guidance on how the DM makes their hardship decision including what resources/essential items they take into account by reading the Decision Maker Guidance: Chapter 35 Hardship:
    http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/dmgch35.pdf - opens into a Pdf or
    download it here: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/specialist-guides/decision-makers-guide/
  • Thank You for the reply MrsManda,

    As we are on JSA we have to fill out a job search sheet and on this my OH stated went into agency and the JC employee who checked his form advised this was not acceptable and deemed refusal as the job step said phone. Cant believe it myself.

    I have just spoken to 3 different departments who have all advised me 3 different things.

    I have now got to call processing to get a breakdown of how they worked out the amount as the JC employee couldn't work it out. And then i have to appeal the decision on the date hardship was awarded even though i was originally told i couldn't.

    With regards to when we got into hardship, this was the date they stopped my OHs JSA as we don't have any savings we could live off and £51.85pw is not enough for 2 people. Like i said i realise that they don't pay the first 2 weeks but looks as though they are only going to pay from the date after they received the form and not backdate it.

    Personally i think this is a bit wrong seen as they didn't write to us to tell us they had stopped his JSA until 2 weeks and 2 days after they had stopped it. And i dont mean the letter was delayed i mean they stopped it on 11th Jan and the letter was dated 27th Jan which we received on 28th/29th Jan.
  • RAS
    RAS Posts: 32,539
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    You also need to appeal the decision to sanction him.
    The person who has not made a mistake, has made nothing
  • Ok will have a look how to do that now.

    Thank You.
  • I am seriously losing the will to live.

    Just spoken to someone to find out how they worked out the amount we will get and it appears we are being screwed over yet again.

    £102.75 (Joint Rate)
    Minus £65.45 (Single rate for over 25 even though my other half is not over 25)

    = £37.30 (My portion over joint claim apparently)

    Add to that 60% of the £65.45 as his hardship will be at the rate of JSA -40%

    = £76.57

    Made me laugh the guy on the phone said i know it seem like your being penalised but thats just how it's worked out.

    I said to him we are being penalised 3 times lol

    1. Disallowing my OH.
    2. Not back dating claim.
    3. Using the higher rate.

    I hope we get somewhere with an appeal.
  • Really sorry to read about this, it sounds a bit harsh to sanction your OH for taking the initiative to call into an agency about a job instead of going home and then making a phone call

    This may sound a bit drastic but have you considered writing to your MP? It used to be the case (many moons ago when I worked for the dole office) that if an MP was involved the case got much higher priority and was investigated by the most experienced members of staff. It may even be that if you do this alongside the appeal against the sanction it would be sorted quicker

    I'm sure if I'm wrong about this someone with more experience will be along soon and correct me

    good luck

    PP
  • Does anyone know how long you have to raise an appeal?

    Could it already be too late?
  • HappyMJ
    HappyMJ Posts: 21,115
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    mrshurt86 wrote: »
    Does anyone know how long you have to raise an appeal?

    Could it already be too late?
    You have 1 month from the date on the letter.

    See here click "GL 24 If you think our decision is wrong." http://www.dwp.gov.uk/contact-us/complaints-and-appeals/
    :footie:
    :p Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) :p Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. :p
  • Firstly, you need to check that the correct procedure has been followed and that your OH has answered everything he needed to. When the JCP advisor said that they did not consider it was appropriate for him to have visited the agency, this should have prompted them either giving him a form called a 195RE there and then or sending one out to him at a later date for him to give his reasons why he applied in this way. If your OH did not return this form within 5 working days of when it was issued, the question is referred to the Decision Maker without any input from your OH. If the DM has any further questions, they will have written out to him, asking him the questions they want answered:again, 5 working days are allowed for this to be returned. First off, I would ask the Jobcentre for a basic explanation as to why the DMs have made this decision and also ask if there are any outstanding questions that need to be answered-if there are, he needs to answer them and the JCP will send them back for consideration. If there aren't, he needs to ask for a reconsideration rather than an appeal first of all as, in the main, the outcome is quicker. My suggestion would be to approach the employer to say whether THEY considered this an application for the job and logged it as such-if they did, this would be very strong evidence in favour of your OH and you shouold include this in the reconsideration (this only has to be in the form of a letter asking the DMs to reconsider their decision).
  • mrshurt86
    mrshurt86 Posts: 24
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Here we go again........

    We raised an appeal with the Job Centre regarding the date the Hardship payment was granted from asking them to back date it two weeks on the basis that they didn't tell us about the disallowance until more than two weeks after the disallowance started.

    I was offered some temp work through an agency and dont want to turn down work so on 21st Feb i signed off and started work for a week.

    On 1st March i contacted the Job Centre about rapid reclaim and that is all in the pipeline and we have to reapply for hardship all over again.

    We signed on Monday for the first time again and was told by our advisor that the appeal had been cancelled because we had signed off and that was that.

    Does anyone know if this is correct?

    If this is the case it means i am going to be £90 worse off doing a weeks work than i was staying signed on.

    I feel like every time i see a light at the end of the tunnel the job centre come along and smash it to pieces :(
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 342.5K Banking & Borrowing
  • 249.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 234.6K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 607.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 172.8K Life & Family
  • 247.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.8K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards