JSA and lone parents

annies_mum

Hi, i am hoping someone can shed some light on a problem my ex husband is experiencing.
My husband and i split up several years ago, i had the three children and our son who has special needs stayed with his dad. He gets low rate care DLA (which we are currently appealing) As our son is 10 next month his dad has been taken off IS and put onto JSA.
Obviously because of our sons needs normal out of hours childcare isn't appropriate for him. So my ex has stated he can only work school hours i.e 9.30 to 2.30, and as is quoted on the DWP site:Lone parents with children of 12 or under will be able to specify school-hours only jobs without it affecting their benefits.
from what i can gather he is in his right to do so. They have said he only has to work 16 hours per week, but this may have to be done over 2 days, example 9 to 6. They have stated on his job seeker agreement he can work 9am to 6pm which in fact becomes 8 until 7 to include the hour travelling they have allowed.
He doesn't sign on for the 1st time until Wednesday, but surely he has being told the wrong info by his adviser as those hours would be impossible to cope with our sons needs. Thank you for your help

annies_mum

can anyone help ??

GlasweJen

A few questions sorry. Does your ex receive the child benefit and child tax credit for your son? Is your ex your son's primary carer?

He has to be the parent with care (PWC) to qualify for the restricted working hours, this is usually assessed as the parent who receives the child benefit so if you get the CB and then pass it onto your ex he would have to go to greater measures that he has the lad full time.

annies_mum

GlasweJen wrote: »

A few questions sorry. Does your ex receive the child benefit and child tax credit for your son? Is your ex your son's primary carer?

He has to be the parent with care (PWC) to qualify for the restricted working hours, this is usually assessed as the parent who receives the child benefit so if you get the CB and then pass it onto your ex he would have to go to greater measures that he has the lad full time.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Yes my ex has sole care of our son, he gets his CTC, CB and DLA paid directly to him. I don't have our son at all (on my own) as i am severly disabled and he is extremly violent.

munchings-n-crunchings

Are you getting help with the DLA appeal?
If not, you can get help and support from Welfare Rights, part of your county council, or there is DIAL or the CAB.

Spend some time concentrating of getting statements and reports that support the level of care your son needs.

Here is a link to the Benefits Now website. Look at each of the links in blue, and understand what they mean. Think about how they apply to your son.
Often, when doing this, I feel that it may come across that I dislike my children, but it's just a case of being frank and honest about their behaviour, warts and all. There''s point painting a rosey picture, just in case people think we can't cope.

If the DLA appeal is successful, even to middle rate care, then your ex can put in a claim for Carer's Allowance, and goes back to IS, rather than JSA.

Regards
Munchie

GlasweJen

Munchie is right, in the mean time I'd get your husband to take his child benefit award letter and a print out of the regulations on seeking work when you have a child under 12 to his signing appointment and ask to have his jobseekers agreement revised in light of him being a single parent.

annies_mum

thank you so much for your replies. it has made me feel much better. We are having help with his appeal, in fact we appealed twice before he got LRC, i think in the end they just got fed up of us and gave us LRC.
He has ASD and is very violent, he has a full statement and only sleeps one to two hours a night, he paces around the house all night so his dad can't sleep as he constantly tries to get out of doors and windows.
He has a "thing" about chewing cables so you can imagine this is a nightmare. in addition to this he smears EVERYWHERE, so life isn't exactly a joy.
We were very lucky to have wonderful help with our appeals but his school gave a report on him when we 1st claimed last year and they said he was a model student, had NO behavioural problems and had just passed his cycling test.........he can't even ride a bike and has splints!!! she admitted afterwards she was thinking of the "wrong child".
He has now moved school and his new head has wrote a long letter to the DLA saying what a problem he is at school, and so has his consultant. So fingers crossed.

MrsBartolozzi

So your ex's Job Seeker Agreement says he is happy to work 9-6?
If this is the case, and he can't because he has child related responsibilities then he MUST get this changed soon!! The JS Ag is a legal document which tells you which jobs you will apply for and what you must do every week to get JSA. At some point in the next few weeks he will be given jobs to apply for (fail to do so and he will lose his JSA) and they could well be 9-6 posts. I would take in the various papers he might need - something saying your son is disabled, and the relevant piece you quoted from the DWP site. If he says that he didn't really notice what he signed (he'd said he could only work school hours) and only read it properly when he got home he might get it changed without much problem. Good Luck.

annies_mum

Well to be honest i was SO cross he signed it.
In his defence he did tell the advisor he could only work school hours and she said that the only stipulation he could state was that he could only work 16 hrs per week and this could be two 8 hour days. he is going in on monday to speak to an advisor (a different one hopefully)

oldmotherreilly

Your ex is entitled to say that he is available for work for 16 hours but those 16 hours have to be appropriate to the sort of work that he says that he is looking for-so if, for example, he is looking for work in shops and is not prepared to work weekends, and the advisor knows that the shops in the area he is looking for work in will not take on anyone who is not prepared to work weekends, then this is what is known as 'restricted availability'-your ex is available for the number of hours that are needed to satisfy the terms for receiving JSA but the hours and the type of work he is looking for may not correspond. At this point, if the advisor felt that the customer did not have a reasonable chance of securing employment within the restrictions they are placing on the hours they are available, they would refer the claim to a Decision Maker with evidence of why they believe this to be the case, the customer would be asked to show their evidence to the contrary and the DM would make a decision. Any disallowance would be for an indefinite period or for as long as the customer imposed the restrictions.
Hope this makes sense.

annies_mum

oldmotherreilly wrote: »

Your ex is entitled to say that he is available for work for 16 hours but those 16 hours have to be appropriate to the sort of work that he says that he is looking for-so if, for example, he is looking for work in shops and is not prepared to work weekends, and the advisor knows that the shops in the area he is looking for work in will not take on anyone who is not prepared to work weekends, then this is what is known as 'restricted availability'-your ex is available for the number of hours that are needed to satisfy the terms for receiving JSA but the hours and the type of work he is looking for may not correspond. At this point, if the advisor felt that the customer did not have a reasonable chance of securing employment within the restrictions they are placing on the hours they are available, they would refer the claim to a Decision Maker with evidence of why they believe this to be the case, the customer would be asked to show their evidence to the contrary and the DM would make a decision. Any disallowance would be for an indefinite period or for as long as the customer imposed the restrictions.
Hope this makes sense.

thank you for your reply, he has said he will do literally anything, although he is a qualified electrician he said he would like to go back to it but they said understandably, there was little chance he would get a job doing that in the hours he could work , they put down retail work, caretaker and delivery driver.
But should they have not told him that he doesn't HAVE to work outside school hours? the advisor said he HAD to be available 9 to 6 five days a week.