Aaaaghh forgot to sign on ...

joanna3292

Due to family illness this week (three young kids, all with a sickness bug) I completely forgot to sign on yesterday -I am on job-seekers allowance. Obviously I cant contact them until Tuesday due to the Easter holidays. Does anyone know how this will affect my allowance? It would be a disaster if they stopped my payment, any advice appreciated as I am spending Easter really worried about this. thanks

CCFC_80

I would just be honest and tell them what you have quoted in this post. As you say you could not contact them today or Monday due to bank holidays. I think probably they will just stop you the one days benefit for Thursday, the day you should have signed on.

Albannach1876

You will most likely have to put your reasons for non-attendance on Thursday in writing, and it will then be referred to independent decision makers to decide whether or not to stop you one day's money. They may come back with further questions for you, but you should get a decision within about an hour. Make sure you give them as much info as possible about the circumstances that caused you to miss attending, not simply "I forgot". If the decision goes against you, you may be required to make a rapid reclaim to continue getting JSA. You only have 5 working days to give your statement, in your case until Monday 20th because of the bank holidays, but I would advise you contact them for an appointment on Tuesday. Good luck!

c0113tt3

Please ignore all of the above, You must contact the jc within 5 working days of missing signing. When you contact them, you will have a dma appointment. Within this appointment you explain the above, that it was a DOMESTIC EMERGENCY and that NOONE ELSE WAS AVAILABLE, and hence you had to look after the children. That is all you will need to say, you can say you forgot, but the real reason is because of the children / domestic emergency. Saying the word forgot may / can confuse to a referral to a decision maker, although again would be straight forward / no problems due to actually being a domestic emergency. It will be handled directly by the jobcentre straight away (a couple of forms - statement (jc will complete es673/675 - treat)), and done within 15 minutes and all straight forward and fine and not lose any money and not be referred to a decision maker

The jc has the capacity to deal with simpler cases like this and has the capacity to treat them as straight forward by the jc itself.

The payment you would normally recieve after you sign on, may have been issued early due to the bank holidays, might be worth checking, but still you need to contact the jc.

sammyjammy

c0113 its not right for you to tell the OP what the DM will do when they visit the Jobcentre, you don't know for sure that her payment will not be affected, surely the fact that she didn't ring and let anyone know will be picked up?

c0113tt3

Actually it is right for me.

Such a case should never even reach a decision maker either and it doesnt matter that the op didnt telephone, provided you contact them within 5 working days and inform. Had the op even contacted the jc on the day, the op wouldnt even need to go in for a dma appointment, as such an instance described above can be handled / treated over the telephone.

Should the case even be referred to a decision maker, which would be an error by the jobcentre, the decision makers would likely cancel the referral, as such a case should not be referred unless there was doubt which the jc would have to explain in their statement.

As for treats which are mostly on the es673/675, there are varying circumstances / limits that the jc can handle themselves without a decision maker. The circumstance above is listed twice !! either as a domestic emergency, or temporary looking after children while normal person who looks after them is away / ill etc.. The 2nd circumstance is usually fitted to suit, as the usual response from the decision makers are either cancelled, allowed with use of treat es673/675.

CCFC_80

The DWP continually make it unnecessarily difficult to claim JSA.
I would have thought common sense would prevail based on what the OP has stated and the worst possible scenario is that they would be stopped just the 1 days JSA for not signing on on Thursday.

These people are really hard work to deal with as they now make you close your claim if you go abroad for just 1 day ! Apparently it is too easy to just say to the adviser on your next signing day that you were not available to work on so and so date as you were abroad. They prefer to make life difficult for you by closing your claim then going through all the hassle of paperwork, phoning the JCP call centre and re-claiming again.

c0113tt3

This will not happen as previously stated, it will not be dissallowed.

But just to correct a few comments, if it was to be disallowed, it may not be just the 1 days money that you lose. Yes if you are disallowed that 1 day, thats 1 day, but then you need to make a rapid reclaim jsa4rr, and depending on when you contacted the jc, for example 3 working days after, you can only reclaim from that day, meaning you lost 3 days. If you contacted directly the next working day that would be just 1 day dissallowed only lost.

Also it has always been the case if you go abroad, your claim closes even for 1 day.

2 main conditions have to be met, available and actively seeking. If you are abroad, then it is not reasonable that if an interview came up that you would jump on a jet that day and be back in time for an interview. Hence you are not available, and why it is closed.

There are some minor exceptions to this abroad rule, for example a job interview abroad, has to be prior agreed / informed to the jc and there is a very small time limit to be back in the uk.

CCFC_80

c0113tt3 wrote: »

This will not happen as previously stated, it will not be dissallowed.

But just to correct a few comments, if it was to be disallowed, it may not be just the 1 days money that you lose. Yes if you are disallowed that 1 day, thats 1 day, but then you need to make a rapid reclaim jsa4rr, and depending on when you contacted the jc, for example 3 working days after, you can only reclaim from that day, meaning you lost 3 days. If you contacted directly the next working day that would be just 1 day dissallowed only lost.

Also it has always been the case if you go abroad, your claim closes even for 1 day.

2 main conditions have to be met, available and actively seeking. If you are abroad, then it is not reasonable that if an interview came up that you would jump on a jet that day and be back in time for an interview. Hence you are not available, and why it is closed.

There are some minor exceptions to this abroad rule, for example a job interview abroad, has to be prior agreed / informed to the jc and there is a very small time limit to be back in the uk.

I would not expect to be paid for the 1 day abroad as stated, but why do they make such hard work of the situation by making you close the claim involving making you call the call centre again ,reclaiming and filling in more paperwork etc. I could have easily mentioned this at my next signing on date that I was not available for work on the day in question as I went abroad. It seems ridiculous and as I say thay want to make it as difficult as possible for someone to claim JSA.

Bruja_2

Yes the DWP make life difficult, but the last post makes it sound like it's the fault of the advisers. It's them that have to follow the rules and regs and I think they have the patience of saints with all the moaners they have to deal with
Sammyjammy. It's obvious that co113tt3 knows what they are talking about
and is advising Joanna the best way to go about it.

c0113tt3

Yes I agree Andy it isn an awkward non customer focussed way of benefit, and really ought to be made simpler in so many different ways. Unfortunately jc staff can do nothing about it, the only advice that can be given is lobby local mps and get enough support from others with it.

Also very often jc staff are unhelpful, this is not because they are mean etc.. it is because of staffing levels which have been severly cut year on year for the last 5 years.