JSA Backdating

jaynensarah

Hi all,

My brother lost his seasonal job in September and applied for JSA (income based) immediately after but has now being informed that the Job Centre had put the forms through on contributions based JSA even though he had only worked for 5 months, he has now used all of his savings to pay his rent and council tax as he has not been able to apply for help with these due to not having proof of JSA.

I know that in order for claims to be backdated the reason must be good enough to satisfy the job centre but was just wandeirng if anyone had ever been in a similar situation to this, if so please can you offer any advice.

Also if anyone knows whether the local council will back date his rent this info would also be useful.

Regards

Sarah

BitterAndTwisted

Does he have any proof that they processed his claim for Contrib-based JSA rather than him not filling in the form correctly? Usually, when you fill in the claim forms it's the applicant who decides which form of JSA they wish to claim.

If they have refused his claim he could try challenging it on the basis that he either didn't understand the claim form or that it was processed incorrectly. Until his income-based JSA is accepted and back-dated he will not be able to claim for the LHA/Council Tax benefits to be back-dated either unless they can accept his lack of any income whatsoever as confirmation. It's always best to speak to the benefits section at the Local Authority yourself rather than crossing fingers that the documentation will be processed appropriately and in good time.

Oldernotwiser

Why hasn't he applied for LHA/HB and CTB? He doesn't have to be claiming JSA to get either of them.