Job Centre Depts. giving conflicting advice - who'r right?

sarymclary

Hi,

My OH was dismissed from work last month, the decision for which we are appealing against through the tribunal process.

He has registered for Job Seekers Allowance, and he has been to sign-on once since then.

He has spoken to his local office, where he signs on, both in person and on the phone, and they state that they do not have any idea about the progression of his claim. They have written to him to say that they need more information from his ex-employer. OH has called the local office to give them a further contact of his employer in the HR Dept. who is dealing with his appeal for tribunal, but local JC won't accept any other contact info, and will only take the person he initially gave based at his old depot, which is a satellite operation away from the HR Dept.

Local JC office asked him to call the 0845 number to contact the JobCentre helpline. Last week they told him that a payment was pending, and that the money would be paid to him on this Monday 30/11/09. The money didn't go into his bank account, so he called them again that day.

On this Monday they told him that we couldn't receive any money for 4-6 weeks from our initial date of claim.

Today we've received a letter from the local JC office stating that his claim is with the Decision Makers re. his payment of Jobseekers Allowance, due to a doubt that has arisen with his claim 'because it appears that there were circumstances which caused your job to end'. He called his local JC office, they advised it could be 26 weeks before any payments were made, and they told him to call the 0845 number again to ask about Hardship Payments.

He called the 0845 number again to ask how his claim was progressing, and they said that it was all going through. They could see no reason why it hadn't gone through, and he was going to call someone else in the Nottingham office (presumably the authorising office, or it processes payments). The person from the 0845 number has now called back, saying that the payments for Jobseekers Allowance are being made!

Who do we believe? Can the local JC be preventing the 0845 offices authorised payments from actually going through?

It's been galling enough having to have OH dismissed for actually following a company procedure, which they are trying to insist was a sackable offence! Hence the appeal at tribunal. They're refusing to pay him outstanding holiday pay too, and deducted parking fines (he was a driver/engineer) that the company usually would pay from his final pay too.

I contacted Tax Credits when OH was first dismissed, and advised them of a change in our circumstances (ie. no income) and they've actually reduced my payments down to £96 a week for a family of 4 children! I've contacted them again to tell them we have no income, but who knows what they're going to do now?

Any ideas/thoughts from someone who actually knows how this system 'works', or understands what triggers a payment, or could prevent a payment? Our local JC office refuses to deal with any enquiries from us, and insists we call the 0845 number.

Vader123

Hi

If someone resigns or is sacked from a job, there could be a sanction (with-holding benefits) of up to 26 weeks of a claim being made.

This is because you had control of the situation and potentially could have prevented your unemployment.

Every situation is different though, and a "decision maker" usually looks at each case on its own merits.

However they can't make that decision until they have the full facts, and that sounds like the problem here as they are contacting the last employer to find out.

You should have £60 a week coming from Child Benefit as well as the £96 a week, so thats £150 a week.

Do you not work?

Have you tried to claim Council Tax and Housing benefit?

Vader

alwaysonthego_2

Hi,

it is possible that your DH can be sanctioned up to 26 weeks if he was dismissed for gross misconduct. However, if you are taking it to a tribunal and disputing the reasons then depending the outcome it could be classed as unlawful dismissal and you should not get sanctioned. I would advice you to go to the CAB and ask them to help you sort this out, take all paperwork with you.

merlin68

You should be getting £200 a week tax credits for 4 children.

alwaysonthego_2

merlin68 wrote: »

You should be getting £200 a week tax credits for 4 children.

Not necessarily, depends how much they have earnt so far for this year.

Cozworth806

The decision making admin may be at local JC, but I would be surprised if the processing unit were not aware of the reasonableness test being applied. If that is the case then note any addresses that the letters come from, whether from JC or BDC, he should have been able to give further info, and I would address it in writing to both JC and BDC giving fuller details of the HR dispute and appeal process he is going through whether they have now asked for it or not.

sarymclary

Thank you for your speedy replies.

Yes, I do get child benefit too, which is paid monthly. No payment due for a couple or so weeks.

We have filled out all the forms for Council Tax & Housing Benefit, but no decision has been made yet.

I don't work, although I have been looking for work for the past year. We live in a rural area, and have only 1 car, so 1 of us needs to find work within cycling/walking distance (bus services are v.poor & mainly for school services/market days). It wasn't so much of an issue of course when OH was working.

The reason for his dismissal really is laughable - he wrote 'done' on his PDA to indicate a duplicate 'job' was on the system, but that he'd already done the work. His ex-line manager had shown him and told him how to do this months ago. The business was taken over earlier this year, by a company that breaks companies down, maximises their assets, etc. The new owners pursue invoices very aggressively and own a collections agency, and decided that 'done' now meant the job had been 'done' again, so billed the customers from October this year whenever it was 'done'. There was no other way to indicate on the PDA that a job was a duplicate, so can't really see, even now, how he could have indicated it differently. As I say, we're appealing against the decision, but fear his ex employers will attempt to stall matters to take it beyond the 3 month period, so we're chasing it daily.

In the meantime we're both hunting for work.

pinkbabe

The system of claimming benefit is really complicated....firstly you make your claim by phone at one of the many contact centres....then depending on the benefit you are claimming will be given a work focus meeting at your local Job centre...... they will go through the statement that you received and look at the evidence you have provided...... then this is sent to the processing department or as they call it now the BDC.... if you need to know anything about the benefit and how long it is going to take to process you can only speak to the processing/BDC....the job centre do not have this information once it has left them the systems they use only give out basis information.... Hope this helps you.

dookar

alwaysonthego wrote: »

However, if you are taking it to a tribunal and disputing the reasons then depending the outcome it could be classed as unlawful dismissal and you should not get sanctioned.

Sorry but this is not the case.

alwaysonthego_2

dookar wrote: »

Sorry but this is not the case.

Well there is always the possiblity that they may get sanctioned still, but surely if the tribunal says that it is unlawful dismissal than it is not the op's fault that they left the job.

dookar

alwaysonthego wrote: »

Well there is always the possiblity that they may get sanctioned still, but surely if the tribunal says that it is unlawful dismissal than it is not the op's fault that they left the job.

I see your point, but the tribunal decision is not binding on the decision maker.

1
34068 Employment protection legislation protects employees against and defines unfair
2
dismissal . Sometimes a case will arise where the DM is deciding on a sanction for
misconduct, and the claimant has also made a complaint of unfair dismissal to an
Employment Tribunal. These are separate questions, decided on different criteria.
The decision making authorities and Employment Tribunals are entirely independent
of each other. Decisions by one are not binding on the other.
1 ER Act 96, s 111(1); 2 s 98 & 100
Vol 6 Amendment 17 November 2005
Relationship with trade dispute, redundancy and unfair dismissal 34069 34074
34069 The main difference between unfair dismissal and misconduct is that
1. in unfair dismissal, the emphasis is on the conduct of the employer
2. in misconduct, the main emphasis is on the conduct of the claimant.
But the employer's behaviour will be relevant to the question of whether the claimant
1
lost employment through misconduct and if so, the length of the sanction .
1 R(U) 2/74
34070 There will be cases where a claimant succeeds before an Employment Tribunal on
the unfair dismissal question, but the DM decides a sanction is appropriate for
misconduct, and vice versa.