student/ jobseekers allowance

skintaroony

my son signed on to jsa last july. he got fed up with doing nothing every day, so enquired at the office if he could go to college. they said yes- as long as its for no more than 16 hours. he started college in sept - doing 14 hrs. he took in the college agreement form - stating what subjects he was doing and how many hours.
now the job centre are saying he was doing too many hours and have stopped his money. today they told him he may have to pay it all back.
he is really anxous about all this... he has not hidden anything from them and was only going by what he was told. Apparently they had got in touch with the college again and they had given the jobcentre his college hours and included study time in with this.
any advice would be really helpful.... he is only 18 ... but dosent want me to go in with him. x

Oldernotwiser

The "16 hour rule" covers all study time, not just timetabled classes.

Have you/he looked at the financial situation if he signs off JSA? He might be eligible for £30 per week EMA if the family income is low and you would be able to go back to claiming CTC and CB for him.

I would expect his Student Services section at the college to be helpful on guiding him through his financial options.

jacklink

i was lead to beleive that 12 hours is classed as full time (i know i know)
he needs to be in full time to claim EMA.

put in an appeal form to say he was miss informed

JoeCrystal

@skintaroony I did looked into it a year or so ago when I used to be on JSA and for people under 19 in Further Education 'full-time' means more than 12 hours study per week. So therefore, it is clear that his Job Centre basically said the wrong information. jacklink is correct, it seems. So in eyes of Job Centre, the study hours seriously affected his availability for full-time work. I am rather bit miffed about it to be honest that your son fell into trouble because he got told wrong information.

All I can say is I will hope that everything will be fine!

oldmotherreilly

The only people who can stop your son's benefit is a decision maker-has the Jobcentre referred it to them for a decision? If not, your son should not feel forced into stopping his claim and should insist that the claim be referred to them. He needs to find out who funds the course-is it the LSC-as different rules apply depending on this. If you feel that the college have provided incorrect information, please stress to them the importance of the information they are providing and ask them to either provide a new Learning Agreement or a letter detailing the exact hours of 'guided' learning your son undertakes-home study should NOT be included. Then pass all this information on to the Jobcentre for them to refer to the Decision Maker.
Hope this helps.

Oldernotwiser

But what is the point of the son claiming £40ish JSA and have problems with the Jobcentre when he can be claiming £30 EMA and his family claim child benefit and CTC quite legitimately. It doesn't make any sense to go to all this hassle for less money!

"'Full-time course'
Most further education students will have a 'learner agreement' detailing the number of 'guided learning' hours each week, i.e. when there is contact with a tutor including lectures, lessons and tutorials. If you have over 16 guided learning hours per week your course will be classed as full-time"

skintaroony

thanks for all your replys, you have all been very helpfull.
my son dosent qualify for ema as my husband earns just over the thresh hold. i would b able to claim cb for him again, thats ok..... but its not the fact of him not getting jsa, its the fact they have wrongly informed him and are deciding wether he should pay £700 back.
i showed him this thread, and asked him some more questions about it, and he said that they failed to send his original form he filled out detailing his course and hrs to the decision makers, and thats why it had only just come to light in the last few weeks. he also says he was deffinately not informed about study hrs included in with actual college hrs.

oldmotherreilly

Oldernotwiser-I'm not saying that skintaroony's son should carry on signing-that's up to skintaroony's son. I was only giving the info that her son may need if he WISHES to carry on signing and for him to know what information he needs if he decides to. I can understand what you are saying about claiming ESA though and see that financially, if he were entitled to it, this may make more sense. Also, what is deemed as full time for the college is not necessarily what is deemed full time under the Social Security Acts.
Skintaroony-what have they asked your son to do about this at the Jobcentre? If there had been any doubt about whether your son was a full time student at the time he filled in the college stencil, then the claim should have been suspended straight away as his availability is called into question. This is the procedure that is designed to stop exactly what is now happening to your son from taking place. As it is an availability question and JSA is stopped it is looked at as a priority by Decision Makers so as not to impose too much hardship on the customer. Have they now suspended his benefit and referred it to the DMs?

skintaroony

yes, they suspended his benefit a few weeks ago and reffered it to the dm.
he had a meeting yesterday and they said he would not b recieving jsa anymore and that he may have to pay it all back.
this was all brought about when, a few weeks back, he was put on the new start scheem. whoever was dealing with him then noticed that he was at college and that the form he had filled in detailing his course and hours(in september) had not been sent off to the dm. o
only then did the job centre get in touch with the college.... which stated his class hours and added on studdy hrs.

oldmotherreilly

Local colleges don't always know the information that is needed for JSA claims-I would ask them to supply a new letter with just the study hours on it; giving days and times that your son is required to be in college. It would need to be signed and dated by the college. If this shows that the course is then under 16 hours, ask for a reconsideration. Did the DM ask who the course was funded by? Who did he have the meeting with-his New Deal Advisor?

skintaroony

yes, thanks, i have stressed the importance of trying to get the college to write an ammended copy.
and, yes, it was his new deal advisor.

thanks again