PLEASE HELP - JSA stopped after missed signing on..what do we do now?

bexr

My husband has been claiming JSA for the past 2 months since the 4th September (2010). Up to that point he has been in full-time employment, earning over £30k a year and has been paying tax and NI all his working life.

The claim took ages to come through and he has only had to sign on twice. Anyway, both he and I forgot he had to sign on during the half term holiday as it's not become part of routine at the moment. His signing in time was late in the afternoon on 27th Oct. We realised around 6pm that he should have signed on, so he went straight to the Job Centre the following morning (Thurs 28th Oct) at 9am. He was given a new appointment that day at 10.30am and signed on then - so technically around 19 hrs late or 3-4 'working time' hrs late from his original sign on. He was told that his benefits would stop for at least 1 week and maybe 2 weeks as he decided to go for honesty and told them he simply forgot. We realise now that this was stupid and he would have been better to fabricate a "my child was ill and I couldn't get through to you on the telephone" line.

Anyhow, we have today (Sat 6th Nov) received a letter from JSA dated 3 Nov saying that they cannot pay JSA from 4 Nov 2010 because he failed to attend an interview on the date specified and didn't have sufficiently good reasons for doing so.

We are confused as we were told benefits would be suspended for 1 or 2 weeks at most. From reading the letter it would appear that they have decided to stop benefits all together. This will also stop our current claim for HB and CTB.

We accept that they will stop benefits for the 1 or 2 week period, and were preparing for this. However, we were not prepared for them to stop the claim altogether.

What do we do now? Can he start a new claim for JSA (and HB & CTB) or is there some kind of stand down period when this happens? I can't find any information on the various websites about this. All I know is that you can't make a 'normal' claim for JSA through the 'normal' channels if you have claimed within the last 26 wks. Does this mean that we won't get any help for 6 months now just because he forgot to sign on once - remembering that he did end up signing on less than 24 hrs after his missed appointment?

We need to show the letter to our local council so that they can stop our current HB and CTB claim. But are we able to submit a new claim straightaway for HB and CTB as of 4th Nov we have absolutely NO income?

Or perhaps I should now claim JSA? Am I able to claim? My husband has been claiming as he is the sole income earner in our household and therefore he was awarded the 'couple' entitlement. I haven't worked for 10 years as we have been lucky in that my husband's job has provided enough income.

We really don't want to go down the route of appeal as he did forget to sign on and we have to accept the consequences of this, but we have been told that the consequences are 1 or 2 weeks of stopped benefits...not stopping benefits altogether.

I would really appreciate any advice or knowledge anyone has on this please. We have a daughter and without any benefits and no job, we are in a pickle. We rent our house too.

I'm not looking for sympathy but rather facts and figures (and other people's experiences) so we know what we can do or what we're in for - hope that makes sense?

Thanks very much for any advice!

LYNSTEG

you can claim hardship!re claim again

HappyMJ

Rapid reclaim from Monday you'll only lose a few days benefit. HB and CTB will not stop.

dugdale_2

However if you close your claim and then make a rapid reclaim on Monday your sanction will carry over to your new claim.
It looks like your husband has been given a two week sanction for failing to sign so your options are
a) appeal
b) accept the decision
c) accept the decision but claim hardship payments

bexr

Thanks for your replies.

Spent a bit of time searching on the net and found this DWP documnet: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/m-21-10.pdf - sanctions for failure to attend (JSA).

From reading this, it appears that the claim ends when you miss your signing on AND don't notify them and sign on within 5 days of the original sign on date. This DOESN'T apply to us as my husband notified them the very next day and also provided a signed declaration ("signed on"), so well within the 5 days.

My husband misdemeanor falls into section 6.1 in the doc, and as this is the 1st occasion, it says that JSA is not payable for a period of one week.

I bet we will find out there has been an "administrative error" ... just like the administrative error that occured and delayed our claim at the beginning when they decided my husband had only just arrived in the country!!! We returned to the UK 12 yrs ago (after living in Australia for a couple of years) and have lived here ever since - yes we are British born! Our child was born in the UK in 2000, yet we had to answer questions like "have you registered your child at a local school" ... to which we replied .. "ummm, yes, she was born in the UK in 2000 and started school in 2004 - 6 yrs ago!". We spent an age on the phone to JSA who said we HAD to fill in this form that was completely irrelavent .. all because some dope at the Jobcentre failed to photocopy the correct part in our passports! Duh!!

If it does turn out to be ANOTHER error on the part of our local Jobcentre, I think we will file a complaint as it is clear there is at least one incompetent employee in that office!

Will keep you posted so that anyone else going through this now or in the future knows what to expect.

dugdale_2

I'm a little confused here, your husband made an error by forgetting to sign on and you're thinking of filing a complaint against the Jobcentre as you think that they might have made an error by sanctioning his JSA.

dookar

dugdale wrote: »

I'm a little confused here, your husband made an error by forgetting to sign on and you're thinking of filing a complaint against the Jobcentre as you think that they might have made an error by sanctioning his JSA.

It sounds to me as though it has been disallowed, not sanctioned. On the information given, that cannot be correct

von

From what you have stated his JSA is not payable for the 1 benefit week from 4/11/10 to 10/11/10 because he failed to attend the Jobcentre on the date and time specified, and although he made contact within 5 days he failed to show good cause for not attending at the correct time (see para 6(1) of your link. If this is the first time he has failed to attend, his sanction period will be for 1 week, if it happens again it will be a 2 week sanction. It is not an administrative error; to receive JSA your husband was required to sign on at the appropriate date and time, if he did not do this then this is the result. Your only option is to phone the Jobcentre asap and ask for Form JSA10 which is a claim for Hardship for the period of the sanction. I can't say whether you will receive Hardship as I do not know your financial circumstances.

bexr

@dugdale - There is no dispute that my husband needs to receive a sanction for not signing on the agreed date, this was never in question!

The letter he has received from JSA states that his benefits have ceased...stopped...claim is now disallowed - this is what we are disputing as we believe he should only have benefits stopped for one week. The DWP dpcument I have linked says he should only have his benefits stopped for one week for his circumstances. Therefore the letter should have said that he will not receive JSA for one week from date to date NOT said benefits are now stopped completely.

Therefore, the only sensible conclusion is that there has been some muck up at the JobCentre or the 'central' office who deals with all this. Somewhere between my husband signing on the day after he was supposed to and the information going to the decision maker, some information has not got through. This should have been a simple one week sanction, not a complete loss of benefits. Therefore, a complaint it warranted as they have caused undue stress and worry and we now have to go through the laborious and unnecessary task of sorting this out.

To be as clear as I can, the administrative error is NOT the fact that my husband has been sanctioned - we agree that he should be sanctioned as he was in the wrong forgetting his appointment. The administrative error is that instead of receiving the one week without benefits sanction (this is his first offence), we have had the benefits stopped completely and this must have resulted from an error somewhere along the line. He has done everything by the letter to only receive the one week sanction. Does this make sense? It seems that a lot of you think I am saying he shouldn't have any sanction at all!

He forgot to sign on. He went to the Jobcentre the next morning, reported it, went through the process of explaining and then signed on (provided the signed declaration). As he didn't have a good reason for failing to attend on his signing on day and time, but did notify and sign on within the required 5 days, he should receive a one week loss of benefits sanction. Accepted, but.... His letter states benefits have stopped and been disallowed and that he is no longer eligible to receive JSA at all. This is wrong, someone has messed it up and given the wrong information, therefore we now need to sort this out and have to go through the process of reactivating the claim and making sure we only lose the one week of benefit. Therefore, it is warranted of a complaint as someone has f**ked up and caused all this cr*p.

dugdale_2

Bexr
In your original post you mentioned that you received a letter stating that they cannot pay JSA from 4th November because your husband failed to attend an interview on the date specified and didn't have sufficiently good reasons for doing so. You didn't say that his claim had been closed, are you sure that the letter has said that his claim has been closed or simply that he will not be paid JSA from 4th November. If his claim was going to be closed completely why from the 4th November why not from the 28th October as that's when his next payment will be paid from.

I believe that this letter is not stating that your husbands benefit has been stopped indefinately but that his benefit will not be paid for the week commencing 4th November.

I believe this is what happened
27th October
Your husband missed a signing.
28th October
Your husband signed for the two weeks ending 27th October.
He had an interview with an adviser who took his reasons for failing to attend on the 27th and sent them to a decision maker.
The adviser does not make the decision on sanctioning your husbands benefit so puts signing evidence onto the computer which releases his payment for the two weeks ending 27th October.
3rd November
Decision maker rules that a one week sanction of benefit must be applied to your husbands claim however cannot claim any money back from your husbands last payment up to 27th October as it has already been paid.
The decision maker cannot sanction a weeks benefit for the week 28th October to 3rd November as that week has already finished so has stopped a weeks pay for the week commencing Thursday 4th November to Wednesday 10th November. The decision maker has written to you informing you that your husband will not receive a payment for the week commencing 4th November.
Wednesday 10th November
Your husband needs to sign on again and three days after signing he will receive a payment of one weeks benefit instead of the usual two weeks.

tameside

Perfect post from Dugdale.