JSA + part time work over 16hrs

Legacy_user

I've been offered temp work that'd total 20 for one week. Can anyone explain how they calculate the hours worked for a JSA claim with regards to it being casual/irregular work? Will accepting this work, even though it's a one off and I've only worked one other day in the month, mean that I have to sign off?

I'd phone up and query this but I'm scared that they'd (a) mess up my claim as they have a tendency to do and (b) that by enquiring I would have let them know I have been offered work and would then be sanctioned for not taking it (even though it's only a one-off of 20 hours in total). I'm pretty sure that you can't be sanctioned for not accepting part-time temporary work, can anyone confirm this?

dookar

arara wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that you can't be sanctioned for not accepting part-time temporary work, can anyone confirm this?

If you have an unrestricted pattern of availability or your pattern of availability is restricted to no fewer than 40 hours you automatically have good cause for refusing employment of less than 24 hours per week, on average.

System

dookar wrote: »

If you have an unrestricted pattern of availability or your pattern of availability is restricted to no fewer than 40 hours you automatically have good cause for refusing employment of less than 24 hours per week, on average.

Thank you for clearing that up!

dookar

arara wrote: »

Thank you for clearing that up!

When I posted it it sounded really wordy and it still does now, does it make sense?

System

dookar wrote: »

When I posted it it sounded really wordy and it still does now, does it make sense?

I gave it a couple of re-reads but it brought to mind my previous research about part time working, especially the 24hrs bit as being the threshold below which you can reject work without sanction when the JSA agreement is to look for 40hrs a week/full time work. After some looking, I've found where I saw the 24hrs bit mentioned! It was in the JSA Decision Maker's Guide.

Employment of less than 24 hours a week
If

1. it has been agreed that the claimant can restrict their hours of availability to less than 24 hours in a benefit week, for example because of caring responsibilities and
2.

the employment on offer is for less than 16 hours a week the claimant will have good cause for refusing or failing to apply for or accept that employment. Where a case does not fall within 1. and 2. above, if a claimant refuses or fails to apply for or accept employment that is for less than 24 hours a week, the claimant will have good cause.

Edinburgh65

I was offered a one-off temp job in June which was expected to last for 28 hours in total (4 days). I notified the Jobcentre that I was going to be doing this work the week before I actually did it, and they gave me a form to fill out to show what hours I had worked. In the end, the job was completed in only 6.5 hours over two half days, but the employer very kindly paid us for about 24 hours work. When I handed the completed form into the Jobcentre, I was told that had the job run to the anticipated 28 hours, that they would have automatically signed me off, although they would have given me an interview for rapid restart. No-one had prewarned me of that.

If you do go ahead with this short term contract, make sure that you provide the Jobcentre with a wageslip to prove what your earnings have been, as I was not asked for one. About six weeks after I did this job, I told a Jobcentre employee that I had been overpaid as they had still not adjusted my benefits in respect of this income, and he said not to worry, and as long as I had completed the required paperwork, they would catch up with me sometime. Catching up with me, came in the form of them temporarily suspending my benefits a few weeks later, until they had examined a payslip, which also resulted in temporary suspension of my council tax benefit.

A Jobcentre employee told me that the other office had made one almighty mess of things and that they should not have stopped my benefits because of a one-off job lasting 6.5 hours. I started a lovely new job on Monday, after a year of unemployment and 6 months of DWP red tape. I was delighted to receive my P45 from the DWP today.

System

Congratulations on your new job Edinburgh65! :T

Sadly I can't say I'm surprised, that's exactly the kind of thing I was worried about happening. You're by far the only person that has told me of similar jobcentre incompetence, I've even heard of the same happening because of unpaid voluntary work!

I notified them of previous casual work (but didn't fill in any forms because they told me I didn't need to. That was completely incorrect!). I have a sinking feeling they'll stop my benefit because of that debacle and right now that'd cause such a mess I can't afford for that to happen. I've turned the job down because I don't want to risk it, I desperately hope they don't sign me off because of the previous work I accepted/did/was paid for even though it's well below the limit for hours.

Edinburgh65

Thanks! I can't believe my luck to be honest. I was starting to think that I was never going to escape the DWP. Hopefully, you'll manage to escape them soon too.

I wish they'd given me a form to comment on how they operate when I signed off, because I could spend a week filling it in. Most of the people I've dealt with have been lovely, but as you say, they're not always on the ball when it comes to giving you the correct advice, and the general atmosphere in the Jobcentre must make people feel more and more stressed and unemployable as time goes on.

I am still trying to get a tax rebate from the HMRC because the Jobcentre didn't enter my P45 details when I first registered. I was told that this often happens if they don't fully understand the P45, and that they would rather key nothing than the wrong thing. They also made a mess of sorting out my mortgage assistance, because although they asked for a huge list of documents which I supplied, I was then told that they should have given me a special form to complete instead, so months on, nothing had been done. Then when they did start to pay it, the interest rate that they use resulted in them overpaying my mortgage by 42% (standard practice at that time, and about to change shortly), and because they backdated it, they paid about £245 to my mortgage lender that was not even due. Then there are the indecypherable letters. The mortgage one was so badly worded that it looked like bad news instead of good news, and I burst into tears when I read it.

The worst part of the whole experience is the way that they handle temp jobs. It took me the best part of two months to sort out the chaos caused by working for 6.5 hours. You would think they'd make it easier for people to do temp work if it means that they are foregoing benefits, even if it's just in the short term, because it is still work experience and a taste of normality. I certainly wouldn't have accepted any more temp jobs of less than two weeks.

Good luck!

dugdale_2

Arara,

I was going to give you some further advice on this issue however won't bother as I work in the Jobcentre and wouldn't want to be accused of being incompetent

System

dugdale wrote: »

Arara,

I was going to give you some further advice on this issue however won't bother as I work in the Jobcentre and wouldn't want to be accused of being incompetent

I'm sorry for making such a generalisation. I know there certainly are many hard working people in the jobcentre who do their job's properly it's just when people don't that problems happen and the problems that happen are a lot more memorable than when everything went smoothly.

Edinburgh65

Hi Arara,

I've just discovered another unpleasant little surprise, when it comes to the DWP and their treatment of one-off temp jobs.

I called them this afternoon, to ask if I was entitled to receive the £100 Jobs Grant that gets issued to long-term claimants automatically, when they stop claiming JSA and start a new job. In order to qualify for this grant, your claim must exceed 26 weeks with no breaks, and my own claim ran for 27 weeks and 2 days. Turns out, that my 6.5 hour one-off temp job in June and my foregoing of benefits re that week, constitutes a break even though I was still signing on, so I do not qualify for a Jobs Grant.

In accepting this one-off 6.5 hour job, I have actually ended up worse off than if I hadn't bothered, because I lost one week's JSA (which I was happy to forego), one week's council tax benefit, and now this £100 grant. The guy I spoke to today was nice and none of this is his fault, but as I told him, it really isn't any wonder that people don't want to take on temp work, when they can end up unwittingly falling into this kind of trap.