JSA claims taking 6 weeks?

Rich44_2

I first signed on 7th May 2009 and still to date have not had one penny out of them and what's worse I can't claim housing and council tax benefit properly as I am not in receipt of JSA.

I now have our social landlord chasing us and the council and whilst at the moment it's just gentle reminders you owe us money I can see it getting out of hand very quickly. I wrote to them on 7th May and explained to both of them but the council says they cannot stop enforcement action even if you're claiming benefits (btw we were up to date on the c.tax and our rent was £100 ahead)

At the moment the CTC and WTC is the only thing putting food on the table (2 year and 9 months old) and without that I don't know what we'd do.

Just phoned again and I can apply for a crisis loan which would get us some money but isn't going to help the council tax and rent situation

My partner is worried sick and i'm really stressed over it.

6 weeks seems a very long time to leave someone with no money.

They expect me to keep signing on but when the job centre is 12 miles each way the bus costs £3 return and is only hourly each way and I am now getting to the point of not being able to afford petrol/insurance to sign on.

I really dont want to get a crisis loan as I just see it as another debt mounting up!

missymugwump

Im sorry to read your post,this must be very stressful for you & your family.


Is there any way you can borrow from a friend/family to see you through just the bare essentials ? you don't want to not sign on that opens a whole new can of worms.

Assuming you qualify the benefits will be back dated and you will be in a position to pay them back,no consolation i'm sure.

I'm not slating the DWP I know they are under a lot of pressure but sadly your situation is becoming the norm
My husbands claim took over a month I guess we were lucky and I was still working at least.

You could try asking for an emergency payment ?
or are you saying they have not even decided your claim yet ?

Try to stay positive

DAREDEVIL78

Hi , me and my partner are in a similar situation to yourselves and it seems to have taken a longer time than it did to get our jsa but i think the dwp are extremely busy at the moment, our income based joint claim (as we both got made redundant at the same time) actually started making payments into our bank after 3-4 weeks of phoning the jsa line, as for the council tax and rent assuming your house is rented surely they must know your predicament, on the basis these people were payed upto your jsa claim then i cant see why they are threatening debt collectors so soon , my council tax benefit application was applied for along with the jsa claim at the interview you should have had with them and also housing benefit to help with your rent should have been applied for too but we didnt claim for that as we have a mortgage, also make sure though you get your tax credits info right or they could make you pay overpayments back so make sure your income gross figures you tell them are right , if they are then what they give you should be what you are entitled to , hope this helps but dont worry , there is help for you , you might have to work out what though via forums like this because even though there are benefits to help the jsa dont necessarily make you aware of what you are entitled to.

mightymole

as it's obviously it's causeing hardship i would enquire about hardship payents sadly if i remeber rightly it's only 60% of full benefit

hope you get it sorted

AsknAnswer

Complain to your MP....complain, complain, complain!!

Tigsteroonie

Hey - snap! I contacted the JSA for a change to my claim on 7 May, and I'm still trying to get it sorted out. Perhaps May 7th was a bad day?

After three weeks, I eventually got an interim top-up payment (as they had been paying me a lesser amount). But to get this I had to phone them three times, and twice they lied to me and said that a giro was being put in the post (it wasn't).

Last Thursday after signing I called them again, to check that the regular payment would now start arriving, somebody was meant to call me back within 4 hours .... Nobody did.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I called again, and again had to give them 4 hours to reply. Nobody did (sound familiar?) After that time, I got firm and asked to speak to a Team Leader. Once again, I'm promised that a manual giro will be going out in the post ..... We shall see.

I wouldn't mind, but the problems all seem to be at the DWP's end. Yesterday's call resulted in them saying that my claim would be removed from the system and re-processed, as they could see there was a processing problem but didn't know why.

And yet, in the meantime (between all these phone calls and money worries) I'm still expected to sign on every two weeks and carry out a certain level of jobseeking activities .......

:mad: I don't think the smiley really describes it!

And you're right, you can't persuade the Council to give you increased HB/CTB without that letter from the DWP. My rainy day savings are now all gone.

NASA_2

mightymole wrote: »

as it's obviously it's causeing hardship i would enquire about hardship payents sadly if i remeber rightly it's only 60% of full benefit

hope you get it sorted

Hardship wouldnt really come into it as far as I am aware - a decision of basic entitlement has to be made first - although I could be wrong on that.

Rich44_2

Apparently the only thing we can do is apply for a hardship loan and I really don't want to go down the debt route as we're up to our eyeballs in it now.

All I can say is thank god for tax credits as that's keeping the children in milk/formula and food

Thanks for all the replies it's kinda good to know that we're not the only ones in this situation which is kind of a relief.

The landlord is ok at the moment as we were £100 up front as I always overpay the rent (well I did) and and the CT was up to date I wrote to everyone but the council replied saying thanks but we'll start proceedings soon anyway as we can't stop it as you're not paying even though you don't have a job etc etc which is a total bloody farce in itself!!

They've already confirmed they'll backdate it to 7th May but but having an IOU doesn't do you much good when you need shopping.

Mind you they've been as bad over the claim over the healthy start vouchers too not heard a thing from them.

Arrrrrgh!!

Perr

As soon as your H/B is sorted your council tax will be put right they usually do them both at the same time. I would not worry to much about being evicted as this is a long progress and your H/B will come thruogh before this happens.

zappster1966

Assuming your claim is straightforward ... you're due your benefit now. So phone them and ask them to pay it immediately by counter payment ...

If they refuse that there's another way to prompt them to pay your benefit. Apply for a Crisis Loan ... the Crisis Loan Officer will quickly establish that benefit is due, he'll ask the JSA section to get it paid immediately. Crisis Loans can't be paid if benefit is due so it's one way to get things moving.

6 weeks is a long time to wait though ... haven't you heard anything from them at all during that period ?

Rich44_2

The only contact i've had with them is when i've been to sign on and when i've called them, apparently all claims are taking about 6 weeks at the moment I guess there's so many people going through the system I was told to call back on the 18th as that is 6 weeks to the day so will find out Monday what is happening.

I'm not too worried about getting money at the moment as WTC and CTC are covering the food but I want the housing and council benefit sorted out.

Thanks for the advice form everyone i'll call monday and find out whats happening and involve crisis loan and MP if necessary