Jobseeker Sanction

James_Jolene

Hi. i do apologise if this is a repeat/boring/in wrong place post. but i do need help, and a quick search of the internet/this board proved unhelpfull, so maybe i am thinking i can get a personalised reply on here

Me, partner, baby
joint jobseeker claim, Child benifit, and child tax. We recently just come off Income support because baby is 3 month old.. ect ect
all is well. getting used to signing on
th first time i signed on, the woman gave me lots of paper with jobs to apply for, i took these with ever intetiontion of applying however, missplaced the peices of paper, the next time i signed on i told her this, and asked her if she could re-print the things for me to apply for them, and explained i had applied for severall other jobs, looked online, ect ect (enough to fullfill requirements) she was not intereested, seemed tired and bored, asked me to sign, and told me i could leave
a few days later i recived a letter saying i had refused to apply for a job or something, i explained on my reply to this letter, what i have stated here
i went to sign on today and asked the guy to check how the desision making thing is going, anfd he looked and said it looks like ive being sanctioned, from what i could glimps at, it looked like 2 months, he said this means i would get no money
sinse coming from Income support to JSA, my moneys being screwded up and have not recived full payment for 6 weeks now, washing machine broken down, and i really cant afford to have another hard fornight as im having to spend money i dont have (rent money) and babys money he's only advise was hardship

Please advise me of what your experiances are and what you think i should do. i have never had a sanction, and this is the second time ive had to be on benifits, the last time was last year, over xmas for about 2 month, and i got a job, that job ended because i was laid off (no longer required)
please.. advise please.

xegec

ask for form of 'hardship payment' in job centre plus
(if jsa been stopped more than 2 weeks, in whatever reason)

info. about hardship payment
http://www.advicekit.info/advicekit/Benefits/A_to_Z_of_benefits_and_tax_credits/Jobseekers_Allowance/Hardship_Payments/Default.aspx

FactualGnome

You should appeal or ask for a reconsideration. If you can show good cause for not applying you can have the sanction shortened or even removed. you should always appeal any decision the Jobcentre make. Ask for a GL24 form next time you see your signing clerk, and ask which vacancy it was you "didnt" apply for. This is a big thing at the Jobcentres at the moment and you can be sanctioned for up to 6months per vacancy, so make sure its only one they have done, or you could be looking at a lengthy spell of Hardship.

kingfisherblue

Do you recveive housing benefit or LHA? I ask, as you mention rent. I know that it may be that you pay more in rent than you receive in HB/LHA, but i thought it was worth checking.

oldmotherreilly

All of the above is correct.
You need to get form JSA10 from the Jobcentre asap, complete this and return for them to forward to the Benefits Delivery Centre.
You can ask for a reconsideration but this is only advisable if you have not already given the information that you have written on here to the Decision Maker. If you have already told them that you misplaced the paperwork and asked for copies the next time you signed on, there is really no point in telling them this again as they will have already taken this into consideration-it sounds to me like they have as a full sanction for Refusal of Employment is six months. I think that the reason they will have sanctioned your claim is because you left it until you next signed on to get the copies of the jobs-the Decision Maker may view it that, as you knew that you had lost the paperwork, why leave it two whole weeks before getting the information again? Why didn't you phone them up and explain the situation before then and ask them to send the copies out? Any question of Refusal of Employment can only be referred to the DM once the job is closed, so it would seem that in the two week period between your receiving the details of the job and when you asked for them again, the job was filled, so that two week delay meant that you had effectively excluded yourself from getting the job.
I would also advise that you contact your Local Authority to inform them of what is happening to your claim and to ask them what you need to do to keep the Housing Benefit or equivalent going. The BDC will automatically notify them that your claim to JSA has now effectively stopped (until the hardship is paid), so you need to sort this out as well.
Hope this answers some of your questions.