new claim then moving to south of country

atrixblue.-MFR-.

trying to finding out on behalf of family friend if this is exactly correct or not.

a family friends partner has moved down to south wales from scotland after losing his job, he made a claim to JSA in scotland but decided he could better his chances and be with his partner full time.

3 weeks on, an interview with JCP down here, he called the JCP today and they still have no claim on the system for him, JCP down here says they have no access to the JCP scotland side of the system so cannot find out whether the claim is being processed, been recieved into their delivery centre or not, they (jcp here) sent a request for information of claim via e-mail to them but had a email back to say this request is still pending he called today and there is still nothing as such only name and NINO on their system.

can the JCP access such info from scotland on thier system?

he feels as if he is being given the runaround, 2 call back request have failed today hence him calling the final time to actually speek to someone.

would he be better off, putting in a new claim, back dating it 3 weeks with explanation as to what has happened and make aware that a claim for JSA could potentially crop up sometime.

or his partner claim for him under her IS as this maybe a bit quicker to process than a whole new claim, but can he activly seek work while on her IS?

any input appreciated

Bill_Bob

It's a complicated procedure they'll be going through hence why it's taking a long time (maybe longer than necessary but like I said this is complicated).

When he moved he should have done a live transfer at the new Job Centre. They mark him down as being at their Job Centre and update the job centre system to show he now signs on in south Wales. Then they send this change of circumstances to their Benefit Centre (all Job Centres are linked to a particular Benefit Centre). His new Benefit Centre send a request to send all his claim forms from the Benefit Centre in Scotland to the new one in Wales (they now "own" the claim and are responsible to do the transfer for this).

That the easy part and one that takes about 10 working days to go through on a live and in payment claim.

With a new claim, the new claims team in Scotland should have just sent the new Benefit Centre the forms who then process it and put him into payment. This is normally longer than 10 working days because you have a) they have to do the live transfer on the main computer system then b) process the new claim (which can take 11 working days on its own). When did he make the initial claim and when did he move ?

If the JCP can't access his claim on the main computer system it means no transfer has been actioned (the email back is a telling one - "request still pending" - meaning either the new Benefit Centre don't have his claim forms from Scotland so can't process it (I guess unlikely but is a possibility) or they have the cliam forms now but they are waiting for the transfer to be actioned in their Centre then they'll process the new claim).

The call backs have probably not materialised because the New Benefit Centre told him that the request was still pending (therefore they won't call back and advise him twice of the same thing). That does depend on when he was last told that. If this was a week or more ago tell him to continue to call the contact centre and they will keep trying for a call back.

In your friends case now he as moved in with a partner, the new single claim will only be valid now up to the date he moved in with her, as he never originally claimed for her and she is on Income Support. This now depends on what type of JSA claim he has made plus, when he did the transfer originally did he add her to his claim? If he gets JSA contribution based, she'll need to add him to her IS claim and he'll sign on for the single rate of JSA and the partner will receive her Income Support at the couple rate minus his JSA single rate.

If he his only entitled to an Income Based JSA claim then her IS claim will be closed and she is moved to his JSA Claim at the couple rate. He then signs on for both of them and it's his responsiblilty for that so they get the money.

If has entitlement to a JSA contribution based and an Income based claim at the same time then she is again moved over to his claim.

The second part of that will be done once your friends original claim has been processed. It's unfortunately a waiting game. But he should use the Contact Centres who will send them requests for a call back.

Hopefully all that helps somewhat. Without dates etc it makes a little harder to judge exactly when things should have been dealt with.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

ok so an update, morning after i posted this, he contacted the benefits centre in scotland (because down here they said they hadcontacted them and the transfur wasnt complete) they informed him that the day he went into their offices with they did the live transfur down to here that day and everything has been done their end and as far as the system shows on the call logs no one contacted them from down here with any query under his NINO.

someone down here rung him to return his ring back request from 1pm the day before!! (thought they had a 3 hour limit) they said to him that they have looked everywhere on the system contacted scotland the day before and they were wating for the tranfur to come in, friend says thats funny i called scotland today and they have no record of you calling at all under my NINO, further more they completed the transfur the day i went into their offices so they have done everything asked of them their end, he asked them politly not to mess him around he doesnt appreciate being lied to he did everything asked of him attended interviews etc etc and now he would like the situation resolved ASAP, with that the lady said she would call back, 20 mins later at my house he recieves a call back, to collect his giro they have all the details, and that they were sorry for any delay, he asked what caused the delay, he was then cut off from their end.

so he finally got his money, they shut his claim down now as he is going on his partners IS, but he is still activly seeking work, but looking after his OH who suffers with mental illness and her aunts OH passed away so she's at breaking point to another relapse.

thanks for your input.