Job Seekers allowance and starting new job

Lady_K

Do you have to sign off job seekers allowance?

My daughter has been on job seekers officially since 29th August although she has not received any payment yet due to a problem getting her first interview, they are backdating her claim to 29th. She had her first intervew on Sept 10th but for some reason she had to go back a week later to sign on, I thought they would class that as her first sign on date. Now she has a start date for her new nursing job on 29th September. Will she have to sign off as her start date is 2 days before she would have had to sign on next?

Will she lose out on any job seekers because her job starts so close to her next due sign on date? Also when will her job seekers allowance payments stop? as she will not get paid with her new job for I think either 1 or 2 months

shelley_uk

JSA is paid in arrears. Signing on every two weeks is to establish that the claimant has satisfied the benefit conditions in the previous two weeks in order for the payment to be released. The benefit is not payable for the first 3 days following initial contact to make the claim. So your daughter will be entitled to a payment covering the period from 10th August to the day before she starts work.

She needs to inform job centre plus of her new job the day before she starts work. They will then send her a benefit payment covering the period of entitlement. (entitlement ceases the day before the first working day)

If she struggles until payday she could apply for a crisis loan but apart from this i dont believe there is much else available (assuming she lives with you ?)

Lady_K

Thankyou,

She thought she would have to inform them straight away as her start date is next Monday but perhaps she should wait until Friday or Saturday then? as the day before will be Sunday.

So really as she officially contacted them on 29th August she will be paid from 1st September up until the 28th September the day before she starts work but backdated.

How long is it to receive the award letter? as she has a sign on book but has no award letter yet which the council said they need as evidence for council tax benefit during that time.

shelley_uk

She will get a benefit letter a day or 2 following the payment going into her bank

As long as they have been informed before the next interview date it should not really matter when she tells them. She should still be paid up until the day before she starts. The reason they need to be told before the interview date is by not updating them and failing to attend the interview will prevent a payment being released

Hope she gets on well in her new job

Lady_K

Thankyou,

Roughly when should my daughter get her first payment in her bank? She has had nothing yet and her 2nd sign on date should be weds even though it wont happen as she starts work on Monday. Shes going to ring them today to inform them.

It was a bit messed up because of the delay in the first interview but I still thought she would have recieved something by now.

Rang job seekers on 29th August and filled in form over phone with advisor

First interview was 10th Sept

Went in to sign on Sept 17th

jumpycheese1

Has she been sent the paperwork yet?

With me I have been claiming JSA since 21/7 (but paid since 24/7) and due to the fact my previous employer was so slow in sending me the P45, despite on e-mailing them everyday and sent them a recorded letter delivery letter and received it through the post a month later, I received payment from 24/7 to 20/8 (my signing on date) on 22/8.

Lady_K

She forgot they closed at 1pm yesterday so didnt ring them but is going to do it tomorrow which is the day she starts work (she starts on a late shift)

I'm just worried in case they dont send her an award letter because she has started work so quickly after signing on as without the award letter they class her as working and charge council tax which goes on my bill (I'm exempt due to disability)

dag_2

My daughter has been on job seekers officially since 29th August although she has not received any payment yet due to a problem getting her first interview, they are backdating her claim to 29th. She had her first intervew on Sept 10th but for some reason she had to go back a week later to sign on, I thought they would class that as her first sign on date.

It's true what Shelley has said about JSA being paid in arrears after the fortnightly sign - however - a JSA claim doesn't actually get assessed in the first place until you have attended the first interview with Jobcentre Plus. I think this interview changes its name from time to time, but they might call it the "Restart Interview" or something like that.

Anyway, the upshot of this is that if you submit a claim for JSA over the phone or on paper, and they book the interview date and time with you, but you then find a job before the interview happens, then you'll find it very difficult indeed to get any JSA payments out of them for the time that you were unemployed before you started your new job, if you don't actually attend the interview. Simply saying "Sorry I can't come to the interview because I've got a new job" isn't good enough. Yes, despite the fact that said new job might appear to be evidence of having looked for a job beforehand. Being realistic, if the interview clashes with the hours on your new job, then you will either need to rearrange the interview so that it doesn't, or you will need to take time off work for it.

However, once the interview has taken place, then they will set up the fortnightly signing cycle that leads to the fortnightly payment - however, the payment will be backdated to the day that you first got in contact to make the claim. If you've already got a job by then, then you can just fill in the ES40 tear-off slip and hand it in straight away when they give you the ES40 booklet.

Shelley says

The benefit is not payable for the first 3 days following initial contact to make the claim.

Ah - that's only true if there isn't a previously linked claim.

I'm not sure how long the linking period is; I think it may be 12 weeks. What this means is that if the last time that you claimed JSA was less than 12 weeks ago, then benefit will be payable for those first three days. The only time that benefit is not payable for the first three days is when the last time you were awarded JSA was more than 12 weeks ago, or if you have never ever been awarded JSA before.

From time to time the government changes the linking period, so the linking period might not be 12 weeks. However, regardless of the actual length of the linking period, the same principle applies; you only lose the first three days payment if the last JSA award was further back in the past than the length of the linking period.

The three "waiting days" isn't the only significance of the linking period. The linking period is also used to decide when a person switches from being "short term unemployed" to "long term unemployed" and therefore when they have to participate in New Deal / workfare / re-enter the workhouse or whatever else the government might do with long-term unemployed in the future. Point is, you can't avoid the obligations on the long term unemployed just by dropping out of the system for a few days then making a new claim, in the hope that this will reset the "clock".

She thought she would have to inform them straight away as her start date is next Monday but perhaps she should wait until Friday or Saturday then? as the day before will be Sunday.

The ES40 should have a tear-off slip; it should be okay just to hand that in when it's convenient; you could do it a day or two before or after actually starting work. It doesn't really matter if it's not absolutely spot on the right day, because there's a box on the form which you enter the actual end-claim date into.

They should give you the ES40 booklet when you have your first "Restart Interview". If you lose it, or if they forget to give it to you, you can always ask for another one.

How long is it to receive the award letter? as she has a sign on book but has no award letter yet which the council said they need as evidence for council tax benefit during that time.

Technically, the "indicator of delay" for Jobseekers Allowance is three months. This means that in the very unlikely event that they take longer than 3 months to decide whether you're entitled to Jobseekers Allowance or not, the DWP become liable for maladministration payments, regardless of whether or not you would have actually qualified for JSA.

So - it should be less than three months.

In practice it's usually a week or two. But if you don't want the council to wait until the JSA award has been decided before they start assessing your council tax benefit, then you can give them your bank statements instead, to prove that you have no other income. Printouts that you've made at home from your internet banking service will usually do; it doesn't have to be an official bank statement.