How long until JSA money arrives?

thriftychick

My OH signed on for the first time on 2nd December but its now 12th January and still no sign of any money. We had our claim accepted - contributions based JSA - on 22nd December.

cifpower

When does he sign on next?

thriftychick

He signs on again next Monday.

ALIBOBSY

When you say signed on was this his first visit to the jobcentre for his initial application interview (where the JS agreement was signed) or had he been in previously and this was his first signing proper? Either way he should have signed on every fortnight since. JSA is paid 2 weekly in arrears and normally goes in 4 working days after you sign, but of course if the claim has not been processed yet nothing would be paid(although he should still sign on).
The clearance target for JSA was 12 working days when I finished at the dwp last year. If 02/12/08 was his initial claim date, 12 working days would mean a clearance target of 18/12/08. If you say his claim was awarded (I assume this is what you mean) on the 22nd I would have expected him to have had some money by now.
If he is due to sign on monday surely he has signed 3 times before now?
If the award was done after his first "proper" signing session ie second time at the JC it causes problems as the JC can't insert the signing date to release the payment.
If this was the case we used to have to phone up the JC and get then to insert the signing date retrospectively so we could manually go through and release the online payment. If it was missed no payments would release till the next time they signed on when the JC would insert the next date.

There could even be a system fault with release of the payments, happened all the time.

Have you tried ringing them, not always easy I know lol but something has gone wrong for no payment to go out after this number of signings.

ali x

ps most of the customers we had would have been on the phone long before this.
BTW was he made redundant or handed his notice in, could be some sort of disallowance on the award?

thriftychick

He has signed on every 2 weeks since 2nd December which as his initial interview date. The award came through the post on 22/12. He did ask when some money might arrive when he last signed on and they said when he received the JSA it would be backdated. We were trying to be patient, I know they are all overstretched at the moment with so many people signing on.

Thanks for your help.

ALIBOBSY

I know what you mean, I am on a carear break and popped in late last year to see my boss. Even then there was cabinets full of claims ready to be processed and my boss said are you sure you don't want to come back we could do with you (nice to be appreciated, but sad for all the extra people on benefits).
I would check your award notice, if it says somethig like £60 (don't know current rates) from 2nd dec onwards and doesn't mention any kind of disallowance the payments should have gone out.
The JC have been given strict instructions on what they are allowed to spend time on. Even to the point where if someone went in to ask a question they had to use the freephone in the JC to phone our office to get an appointment at the JC to be seen!!!! Mind you they were supposed to be getting the facility to book them in at the JC. They won't really look at your award for you unless you really push it as they are not allocated time and therefore staff for anything above the basic sign.

Sorry looks like a phone call!

good luck
ali x

metrobus

thriftychick,

If he signs on next monday which is the 19th,he would have signed on on the 5th jan,
22nd dec and 8th dec.
When you say he "signed on" on the 2nd was this his telephone interview when he 1st phoned up to register or when they told him to go into the office to sign his job seekers agreement.and give him his sign on day ?

thriftychick

2nd December was when he first phoned up to ask about claiming JSA.

thriftychick

DH phoned the jobcentre today as we received a letter saying that we were not entitled to any type of JSA.

After speaking to the advisor, it appears that there has been a "blip" in the system. We have apparently been treated as a couple on income based JSA (this is despite being sent a letter to say he was on contributions based JSA). Because I earn more than the £94.99 needed to live on per week, we have not been paid any money. When I enquired why we had not been paid any for the two weeks over Christmas when I wasn't earning, they started to question whether there had been a mistake made.

They have recommended that we write confirming that we want to claim for contributions based JSA for DH alone. They have said they will backdate this to 2nd December. They assure me that we will receive the money next Thursday. :rolleyes: I won't hold my breath!

k1mmie

How long does it normally take and will they backdate it to my telephone claim, even though not going in to job centre for interview until Friday. Then how long do they take to pay?

They also took all my info for tax credit on the phone monday and said they have an express system. How long does this take to hear from them and is this seperate to the JSA?