Can I reclaim jobseekers allowance

seh567

Hi, I need some advice.

My son was on JSA & housing benefit for a period of about 12 weeks. However he recently took a 30 hour 6 months fixed term contract with Royal Mail so he ceased claiming benefits. After 3 weeks of working it is not working out. He is expected to work beyond his contracted hours, has been made to use his own car on several occasions and his efforts to sort this out with managers is being ignored. He feels he has no choice but to leave voluntarily.

Can someone please advise if he would be able to reclaim previous benefits whilst he looks for a further job as he has no other means of support, ie savings etc.

LittleVoice

Was he being paid for the additional hours?
Does he not want to work more hours than 30/week?
Was he being forced to work more than 48 hrs/week?
Has he been reimbursed for using his own car if it is for work?
Is his car insured for business use?
Did they force him to his car and make him open the door and turn the key in the ignition?

If he left the job, he could try to claim JSA (and any other benefits). Certainly for JSA they would want to know why he left voluntarily and might decide that he was not entitled to the benefit if they did not believe the situation warranted walking away from it.

Unless he has been employed in the contract for less than a month, then he would need to give at least one week's notice of terminating his employment. It could be more depending on the contractual terms on notice giving.

seh567

Answers to your questions:-

No he is not being paid for extra hours
He would like to work more hours but he took this contract because he thought it would be better than claiming benefits
Before claiming benefits he was self employed ceiling fixer with no work
He has not been reimbursed for using his own car and is not insured for business use
Didn't force him to use his car but made it awkward for him if he didn't

He has only been in the job for 3 weeks to date

Emmzi

I suspect he's still better off doing some extra hours and getting paid for 30; and once he learns the job he may speed up? (3 weeks is not long to get the hang of things!)

has he joined the union/ spoken to hus rep as they can help

has he spoken to HR to get advice on what is normal?

LittleVoice

seh567 wrote: »

Answers to your questions:-

No he is not being paid for extra hours
He has not been reimbursed for using his own car and is not insured for business use

If asked to do extra hours again, ask them to sign a timesheet or whatever and put in a claim for the extra time. (And watch the NMW regulations are not being breached if they have not paid for the extra time so far.)

He should ask how he will be paid mileage for the use of his car. Or, if it wouldn't amount to much for the past use and he doesn't want to make too many waves, in future he simply says he is not now insured for business use and will not use his car for their work - and he leaves his car other than on their premises if he can park free nearby.

custardy

LittleVoice wrote: »

If asked to do extra hours again, ask them to sign a timesheet or whatever and put in a claim for the extra time. (And watch the NMW regulations are not being breached if they have not paid for the extra time so far.)

He should ask how he will be paid mileage for the use of his car. Or, if it wouldn't amount to much for the past use and he doesn't want to make too many waves, in future he simply says he is not now insured for business use and will not use his car for their work - and he leaves his car other than on their premises if he can park free nearby.

RM dont pay towards car use bar 3rd party cover

OP i have replied to your other thread on this matter

LittleVoice

custardy wrote: »

RM dont pay towards car use bar 3rd party cover

As a matter of interest - so they'll pay any extra for insurance but not pay for petrol etc? Presumably they don't demand that someone has a car in order to do the job, so why should they think they can get someone to use a car, if they have one, without paying for its use?

custardy

LittleVoice wrote: »

As a matter of interest - so they'll pay any extra for insurance but not pay for petrol etc? Presumably they don't demand that someone has a car in order to do the job, so why should they think they can get someone to use a car, if they have one, without paying for its use?

well its a long and mixed story
go back to when RM brought in the 1 delivery system
under this system when a postie finished they went home.
this was the carrot
so posties were coming in early (as much as 2 hours),rushing around not taking breaks to finish early

so posties were using their own cars which saved them time and saved RM a fortune as they needed less vans.drivers,fuel etc
now jump to now and RM are saying they want posties to work their paid hours. fair enough but they are still utilising peoples cars

in those years many offices have designed duties around people using their own cars
its common for managers to to apply leverage on new starts,weaker members of staff to get them to use cars on delivery
most experienced posties dont or do as i do
i use my car to get to my starting point.my mail travels on the van and is dropped off at pouch boxes
i do this as the delivery office is miles away and would take a long bus journey to collect my car at the end of delivery

RM are trying to bring in many changes but not where they are needed.eg we have been told we are not allowed anymore pouch boxes yet RM are changing duties meaning new pouch boxes are needed.
here is where a manager would try and 'force' a postie to use their car

custardy

LittleVoice wrote: »

As a matter of interest - so they'll pay any extra for insurance but not pay for petrol etc? Presumably they don't demand that someone has a car in order to do the job, so why should they think they can get someone to use a car, if they have one, without paying for its use?

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KQ5NF6YP

ive uploaded RM's car procedures
its a Word document

seh567

ThanksCustardy, Ill pass it on