JSA and Faster Payments....

drwho2011

Thedustbuster wrote: »

Sorry, but I disagree. I am at a disadvantage if my payment arrives later than someone else who is claiming the same benefit. End of.

The payments cover the same period of time so the only disadvantage is due to the nature of the banking system and the initial payment received.

Anyway as Adereterial already stated they aren't the same benefit.

drwho2011

suelees1 wrote: »

guidance - that's exactly what it is - guidance, not law but something those in their ivory towers decided would be the best way to deal with it.

No extra staff on the crisis loan lines though so no-one could get through anyway.

If staff don't follow the guidance then they can subject to disciplinary action.

In regards to same day payments they incur a cost to do so as previously stated and will normally only be done in cases of maladministration.

In my time with the DWP I would say 70% of same day payment requests I dealt with were due to customers who had drug/alcohol problems and weren't able to get crisis loans after spending all their payments.

10% were cases where payment had previously been given same day payments and hadn't been able to budget it until the next payment.

10% were cases where the customer had debt problems and was overdrawn due to bank charges

7% were requests for payments on newly processed claims.

3% were cases of maladministration, i.e missed signing evidence


As for the comment about the staff, well that's a consequence of government cuts.

suelees1

The whole debacle is as a result of govt cuts.

drwho2011

suelees1 wrote: »

The whole debacle is as a result of govt cuts.

I totally agree.

bored_at_home

i dont see why it matters after youv had the first paymernt they come every 14 days which is how long they expect it to last. wheres the problem?

Mara69

Thedustbuster wrote: »

I didn't know you could request a different signing-on day - can you really do this? 5 days is a killer!

Why is it a 'killer?'. You get your JSA every 14 days. The length of time between signing on and actually receiving the money is neither here nor there, surely?

hostable

Isn't there some cases, where a payment has been clawed back for some reason, whereas had the payment been made by FP, the payment would not be able to be clawed back?

I agree with the previous two posters, there is nothing wrong with a 3 or 5 day delay, you still get the same amount of money, and you just need to learn to budget if you have problems with that. A lot of people work for an entire month, before they get paid for it, and they don't get paid for the month in advance either, so they have to budget to make sure they have enough money for the next month, and at some point, technically, they are at a disadvantage, because their wages could be upto 28 days in arrears etc...

Vegeta_ble

I posted this elsewhere but since you mention them clawing back money, it's relevant here too, so I'll repost it.

I still think the DWP are breaking the law. The payment is not set up in advance; you sign on, they send the payment through on the computer, and it arrives three working days later. Fail to sign on, payment isn't sent. If you sign on a day late, they send it through then, so it's yet another working day.

Basically, the Jobcentre staff send the payment through manually when you sign on, so it's illegal, surely!

In the past, they have claimed the money back after two working days due to a missed appointment. One day before I was due to receive it. This is another thing they shouldn't be able to do!

drwho2011

Vegeta_ble wrote: »

I posted this elsewhere but since you mention them clawing back money, it's relevant here too, so I'll repost it.

I still think the DWP are breaking the law. The payment is not set up in advance; you sign on, they send the payment through on the computer, and it arrives three working days later. Fail to sign on, payment isn't sent. If you sign on a day late, they send it through then, so it's yet another working day.

Basically, the Jobcentre staff send the payment through manually when you sign on, so it's illegal, surely!

In the past, they have claimed the money back after two working days due to a missed appointment. One day before I was due to receive it. This is another thing they shouldn't be able to do!

No it wouldn't be illegal because it is ensuring that conditionality is being adhered to.

Secondly the fact it takes 3 days is a limitation of the banking system and nothing to do with the DWP.

Thirdly you do realise that it costs time and money to reclaim funds paid out, typically if its under £100 overpayment they don't bother because its not cost effective.

Now assuming they paid JSA by CHAPS you've increased the JSA benefit bill by 50%.

Secondly if people found work they would more likely leave it until a couple of days after their payments (started work before payment issued) before notifying the DWP to close claim, end result would be benefits being paid that shouldn't have and probably not being reclaimed by the DWP.

But hey with a benefit bill of £190bn who's going to notice another the £1.3bn cost of sending JSA payments by CHAPS each year.

Vegeta_ble

Not CHAPS. That costs £25. I'm talking about Faster Payments, which is something different.