Jobseekers time taking

50plusabit

Hi
I have a friend who is unemployed and homeless, they have applied for Housing Benefit and Job seekers. They are living on the generiosity of others, and went to the job centre 2 weeks before xmas when they realised they were entitled to jobseekers. They have been told that it will not be sorte until end of Jan. Just before Xmas they received £125 crisis loan, but most of that went to pay back some of what they owed.
They have no money at all, and are getting desperate. There is no doubt they are entitled to jobseekers, but is there ay way they can get the job centre to move quicker? Housing benefit will ot do anything until the job sekers is sorted, its a catch 22.
Neither of us have any previous dealings with the benefis agency, and I am appauled at their lack of urgency. Any advice would help.

karenx

Have they paid the appropriate NI in order to claim JSA?
Also they need to have found a house to rent first to claim housing benefit, are they just waiting to move into one?

alwaysonthego_2

karenx wrote: »

Have they paid the appropriate NI in order to claim JSA?
Also they need to have found a house to rent first to claim housing benefit, are they just waiting to move into one?

If they have no other income or capital they can claim IBJSA which is not dependant on NICs.

Oldernotwiser

Would have been better to have lived off the crisis loan, which is what it was given for, rather than using it to repay loans!

AsknAnswer2

Why are they claiming housing benefit, if they are homeless?

qwertyuiop12345

AsknAnswer2 wrote: »

Why are they claiming housing benefit, if they are homeless?

Presumably because they would like to stop being homeless and arrange to receive housing benefit in order to rent a place to live? Pretty stupid question really!

tr82

AsknAnswer2 wrote: »

Why are they claiming housing benefit, if they are homeless?

Don't automatically assume homeless=cardboard city.

Many homeless people are in emergency accommodation such as council b&b, scatter flats etc etc ... and can be entitled to Housing Benefit for that while they're waiting to be housed.

Crisis Loans are generally paid once in these circumstances, to tide a person along until their benefit comes through. So I'd advise the OP's friend to contact their Benefit Delivery Centre on Tuesday (Monday in non-Scotland) and ask the JSA New Claims team when he's going to be paid - "end of January" isn't good enough.

If he's signed on since he claimed then benefit may well be due now, depending on his prior/current circumstances etc. So if that's the case they should really be prompted to give him a payment now, they can do that by counter giro at the Job Centre or by a same day payment to his bank account, if he's got one.

If they refuse that, he should apply for another Crisis Loan. That won't necessarily be paid ... but Social Fund will contact the JSA New Claims team to find out what the problem is and that in itself is usually enough to get the claim assessed and paid.

Failing which, the OP's friend can contact the Duty Social Worker at Social Services, or the Police, after 6pm and ask to be put in touch with the DWP Out Of Hours officer for his area. They might be able to give the OP's friend a cash payment to tide them over until the office re-opens.

Although, as Oldernotwiser says, the first Crisis Loan was meant to cover them for for food etc rather than be used to repay debt.

AsknAnswer2

I am well aware of how the benefit system works, thank you, and am not daft enough to think homeless in general terms means without accomodation of any sort. And you speak of assumptions........

I was merely asking why they are applying for HB when they are homeless, on the presumption that "living on the generosity of others" extended to acomodation also. If the OP's friend does not have a commercial tenancy agreement, he would not be entitled to Housing Benefit.

Thus if "living on the generosity of others" does extend to accomodation insofar as he is being offered accomodation free of charge out of generosity, he would, in order to be considered for HB have to present himself as homeless to the Local Authority who would place him in said temporary accomodation where available, with a commercial rent agreement, whilst he awaits permanent social housing.

If he is in temporary accomodation with a commerical agreement then it isn't an issue. But as the OP hasn't answered my original question, we'll never know.

50plusabit

Ask..........My friend has been spending the odd night with 4/5 different generous friends, including me, but as I have a two bed house with 3 kids, he can only bunk down occasionally. He is homeless due to marital reasons, also is not working. He has been told he is entitled to HB and to find a property, which he has done and just waiting for the date of the start of the tenancy, we are not asking about that, as it is all clear.
But the problem is the job seekers. He applied before Xmas, and is now signing on every week, has filled in yet another form last week, which yesterday they said they had lost, and he needed to fill another one in by today or his claim will be cancelled. Luckily enough he get a photocopy of everything.
He did have a crisis loan, and because he owed friend money he was asked to pay it back with some of the loan, that was his choice as the person had been good to him. Its very easy to judge somebody, when you have money, please do not judge.
I want to know how long the DP should take to pay his JS that they have been told they are entitled to, there must be some guidelines. I know that with HB once the claim was complete they had 10 week before they had to pay, but that was when it was landlord direct.
If anybody can help I would be grateful, this poor man cannot even buy a newspaper.

red_devil

why do they lose things tell them its a data protection breach and to get their fingers out pronto.

50plusabit

I need something concrete, to say they have to clear this claim in a certain amount of time. Please