I got bad advice re JSA last year - what shall I do?

markdee

Last year I got made redundant and it was the push I needed to look at going self employed (as a tiler). I was a complete noobie to the Job center thing and went along to see what the deal was.

To cut a long story very short - I explained my situation and that I would be looking at going self employed asap. Obviously this was unknown territory and I didn't know how it was going to work out, if at all.

The person who advised me put me on JSA and also told me that I should call a telephone number 3x weekly and visit every fortnight to claim that I had been looking for work. (I used to be in field sales earning 30k pa so he knew, and I knew that the Job center was NEVER going to find me a job like that) He said I should do this as it would help me get settled in to self-employment and the JSA would give me a small cushion to help in the early months.

I was stunned and grateful for the seeming "flexibility" and left a happy bunny.

By the time I got home though it was bothering my conscience. I felt that it was fraudulent to claim JSA when I was not looking for another job, so I called the Job Center and spoke with the manager there and explained the situation. She seemed stunned at my honesty but thanked me and said she would cancel my claim.

My big gripe is that I have a wife and two small children (not griping about them - they're great!) and we have spent this 1st year scraping by. It has worked out for me, but the 1st year has been really tough (and it looks like it's getting tougher!) I have just spoken with another couple of guys who were in the same boat as me but they were placed on a "Test Trading" scheme which meant they could claim JSA, housing benefit, council tax benefit, maximum tax credits etc for 6 MONTHS! Any income from jobs they did in that first 6 months had to be put in a business account and could not be touched, but after 6 months they were free to start trading and had 6 months worth of built up funds.

I feel REALLY mis-informed and pretty angry that I was left (in part thanks to my own honesty) to struggle along without any help at all.

Is it worth complaining??? I really feel like doing. If I had known about this "test trading" I would have jumped at the chance. After all, I paid years' worth of income tax and it would have been really helpful to get a bit of help back.

marksoton

If you are doing it in principle to point out that they should advise better and maybe train their staff a little more fair play.

If you are after compensation no.

Judging by your post i suspect it is the former. After all if they are not told when they make mistakes how can they learn from them ?!

markdee

Yes, I don't expect in a million years that I would ever get a sausage from them.

It is just SO frustrating that I had to borrow a couple of thousand pounds to help get going last year, when it would appear that we were in fact eligible for that amount at least in completely legitimate assistance.

marksoton

markdee wrote: »

Yes, I don't expect in a million years that I would ever get a sausage from them.

It is just SO frustrating that I had to borrow a couple of thousand pounds to help get going last year, when it would appear that we were in fact eligible for that amount at least in completely legitimate assistance.

Flip side is you did not need them and did it on your own i guess. Still that does not negate the bad advice. If you are sure you would have been eligible then yes i would complain. If only to maybe help people in the future.

Whether they will take a blind bit of notice is another matter !

markdee

Hmmm, I am a master complainer so I'll give it a go.
I'll expect a standard format response letter and then nadda......
Then I'll go to the Daily Mail!

marksoton

lol, do it. You never know someone down the line may benefit from it.

More worrying is the advisor and her managers attitude.

Makes you wonder where all the money goes !!!!

Voyager2002

markdee wrote: »

Hmmm, I am a master complainer so I'll give it a go.
I'll expect a standard format response letter and then nadda......
Then I'll go to the Daily Mail!

Rather than the Daily Mail, take it to your MP.

In fairness to the job centre staff, these schemes are incredibly complex and there might have been some reason why you would not have been eligible. The advice originally given to you might have been a good option: after all, it might have made sense to continue looking for a good job while starting your business.

markdee

Voyager2002 wrote: »

it might have made sense to continue looking for a good job while starting your business.

Thought this through long and hard and I simply couldn't have made the time. Getting established quickly had to be my #1 priority.
I could have pretended, but that didn't sit well with me - same as lieing in my opinion.

You may be right regarding my eligibility. It is a "new deal" scheme which I thought was for long-term unemployed. However, both guys I spoke to who particpated in this scheme were "freshly" unemployed.

Ends up taking me back round to feeling totally disgruntled at the "unfairness" of it all. Seems to me that those who don't want to work get more than those who do want to work. Let's not get started on that though :mad:

tom9980

The Jobcentre misinform or more often neglect to inform people all the time even those in genuine need or not your right to be annoyed at the advice given to you and i think it is only right you complain about the service they have given you. Please do it this is the only way to bring about positive change Jobcentre staff have a difficult job and its not helped by poor training.

Im also concerned that the Manager you called did not set you straight as well, they should have the knowledge to give the correct advice and it seems they did not.

Conor_3

markdee wrote: »

You may be right regarding my eligibility. It is a "new deal" scheme which I thought was for long-term unemployed. However, both guys I spoke to who particpated in this scheme were "freshly" unemployed.

There are some workarounds in New Deal in order to bypass the 6 month signing on requirement. One of those is if you have a condition or illness that means you can no longer do your normal job. For example, when my back packed up completely the second time, lorry driving was looking highly unlikely so because of that, I became instantly eligible for a whole raft of things you'd normally need to be signing on for 6 months to get.

Oldernotwiser

Conor wrote: »

There are some workarounds in New Deal in order to bypass the 6 month signing on requirement. One of those is if you have a condition or illness that means you can no longer do your normal job. For example, when my back packed up completely the second time, lorry driving was looking highly unlikely so because of that, I became instantly eligible for a whole raft of things you'd normally need to be signing on for 6 months to get.

Quite right; there are often concessions for other groups like offenders so there's no way that you'd know why someone was eligible. From what the OP says, I can't see that he'd've been eligible for this scheme and it sounds to me as if the advisor offered him good, realistic advice. Complaining will only drop the advisor in the **** and make sure that s/he sticks to the letter of the law the next time. Then we'll get someone on here complaining about JCP's lack of flexibility. Sometimes you can't win!