JSA while waiting for CRB

robson02

Hi there,

I'm in a bit of pickle, not knowing what to do about this JSA situation. Any advice would be much appreciated.

I am a 23-year-old university graduate who has been in receipt of JSA for around 4 months. I have been desperately seeking work and volunteering with a charity to fill in my time since leaving uni last summer.

Finally, I have been offered a 30-hour-week paid job for another local charity. The charity deals with vulnerable adults so I have accepted the job BUT it is subject to an enhanced CRB. I have been given a start date of 26th April if this comes back clear (I know it will!).

Now I am no longer actively seeking other employment as I have accepted this post HOWEVER the acceptance is conditional until the CRB comes through to prove I'm eligible. Am I entitled to receive JSA until the day I officially commence this job? The start date is almost a month away and I cannot live on nothing until then without amassing debt. I already have 10k in student loan debt in total so obviously I want to avoid this! I have also been told I will not get paid until I'm 2 weeks into the new job so if my JSA was taken away before my start date that would be verging on 6 weeks with no income at all.

I cannot find the necessary information online and I would ask my local JC but, to put it kindly, they've been as much use as a chocolate teapot so far and I'm worried they'll make me give up my JSA without assessing my situation properly.

Has anyone else been in this situation? What did you do?

NASA_2

So long as you fulfil the criteria of actively looking for work, being available for work etc. then you can sign on JSA and receive payment.

Advise them that you have been offered the job subject to the CRB check but continue to 'go through the motions' including attending interviews if they happen. if the adviser has some sense they will take the fact that you are pretty much guaranteed a job into account when signing you on. To that end, if you have a letter showing the offer of employment, take it with you next time you are signing-on.

As for the gap in money between signing off and your first pay check. There is a social fund loan under 'alignment to wages/salary' which might be of use but it does mean more debt which has to be paid back.

robson02

Thank you so much for this reply. This sheds a lot of light on the issue

I was worried that the words ACCEPTED, JOB and 30 HOURS would just ring in their ears and that my payments would be withdrawn straight away. I have been given false information from them before (they said there was no funding at all for me to do courses in my area when in fact there is) but I am confident they will adhere if these are the guidelines.

I will follow your advice as I have an appointment on Thursday. I will take the letter along then, explain the situation and hopefully they'll allow me to still 'go through the motions' I'm happy to do this if it means still receiving the payment until I can afford to stop signing.

Many thanks

Adereterial

Basic entitlement conditions of JSA are as follows:

Actively seeking employment
Available for employment
Having signed a Jobseeker's Agreement.
Attending fortnightly/weekly signing appointments.

If you refuse to look for work you won't be entitled to JSA, so as has been said above, go through the motions and you'll be fine.

robson02

Thank you for confirming that Adereterial

I'm fine with going through the motions so I'll be upfront with them.

cassieB57

you can look for temporary work until you sign off. Think of it as if you have a job and given a month's notice-you would still have to turn up for work for the month if you want to get paid- the same goes for complying with the JSA rules until you actually start work!