Benefit Entitlement / Sanctioned

ccmiller

Hi all. hope i've got this in the right forum.

A quick overview of our situation:

i'm 30, my partner is 42, she leaves work today from an 18 hour a week job. I have today recieved a letter from DWP telling me:

We can not pay you Jobseeker's Allowance from 4th May 2012

This is because we recently told you that a decision would be made about a doubt:

on whether you failed to attend an interview with an Employment Service advisor or officer on the date specified. We have now decided that you failed to attend this interview and that you did not have sufficiently good reasons for doing so

if you are looking for work, and you intend to dispute or appeal against this decision, or to apply for hardship payments, you should continue to provide signed declarations as instructed on your ES40

We cannot award National Insurance contribution credits for this period.

We cannot pay you Jobseekers Allowance from 11th May 2012

We cannot pay you because you have not paid, or being credited with, enough Class 1 National Insurance Contributions.


the facts of this case are that I failed to attend my Jobseekers Allowance Signing time on the Thursday before Easter, simply because I forgot it was my week to sign. I then contacted the Job Centre on the following tuesday (the first day it was open) and signed on then, explaining my reasons.

so my questions are:

1) how long is this sanction for?
2) where has the idea of contribution based come from? I was on income based jobseekers allowance
3) is there anything i can claim in the mean time?
4) will i loose Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit?
5) have they followed the "rules" with this letter by not stating an end of the sanctionable period?

thanks in advance for your help.

Torry_Quine

The letter should have told you how long the sanction is for.

It's not contribution based JSA, it's saying that you won't get your NI credits while sanctioned.

You can apply for hardship payments which will need to be paid back.

Vincent_Buenisedes

ccmiller wrote: »

Hi all. hope i've got this in the right forum.

A quick overview of our situation:

i'm 30, my partner is 42, she leaves work today from an 18 hour a week job. I have today recieved a letter from DWP telling me:

We can not pay you Jobseeker's Allowance from 4th May 2012

This is because we recently told you that a decision would be made about a doubt:

on whether you failed to attend an interview with an Employment Service advisor or officer on the date specified. We have now decided that you failed to attend this interview and that you did not have sufficiently good reasons for doing so

if you are looking for work, and you intend to dispute or appeal against this decision, or to apply for hardship payments, you should continue to provide signed declarations as instructed on your ES40

We cannot award National Insurance contribution credits for this period.

We cannot pay you Jobseekers Allowance from 11th May 2012

We cannot pay you because you have not paid, or being credited with, enough Class 1 National Insurance Contributions.


the facts of this case are that I failed to attend my Jobseekers Allowance Signing time on the Thursday before Easter, simply because I forgot it was my week to sign. I then contacted the Job Centre on the following tuesday (the first day it was open) and signed on then, explaining my reasons.

so my questions are:

1) how long is this sanction for?
2) where has the idea of contribution based come from? I was on income based jobseekers allowance
3) is there anything i can claim in the mean time?
4) will i loose Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit?
5) have they followed the "rules" with this letter by not stating an end of the sanctionable period?

thanks in advance for your help.

1) if it's your first sanction within 26 weeks, it's for two weeks
4) you shouldn't lose it, but the jobcentre probably would have notified the council that your circumstances have changed and that they are no longer paying you JSA, so the council will suspend your housing benefit claim. Contact your council and inform them that you will have no income and they will keep you claim open.
5) they usually put dates that the sanction applies (they've always done on mine), so you best bet is to phone you jobcentre to confirm the dates. If your cheeky, you can ask them to reconsider their decision aswell;)

earthbound_misfit

ccmiller wrote: »

1) how long is this sanction for?
2) where has the idea of contribution based come from? I was on income based jobseekers allowance
3) is there anything i can claim in the mean time?
4) will i loose Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit?
5) have they followed the "rules" with this letter by not stating an end of the sanctionable period?

1) It should just be for two weeks (the time covered by each signing appointment).
2) Not sure...
3) You may be able to get hardship payments - but usually only if you're in a vulnerable group eg, ill, disabled, with children etc, but it's worth applying and explaining you have no income/need it to buy food etc.
4) No you won't lose HB etc, but you'll need to contact the HB office to make sure they know what's happened - JSA dept will just send them a notification that you're not getting JSA, they might assume this is because you have a job or other income.
5) Again sorry I'm not sure about this but contact them to find out how long the sanction is for.

Finally, if your partner is now actively seeking work you will have to add them to your JSA claim/make a joint claim asap. Also I have got hardship payments before and they didn't have to be paid back (it's about £50 a week max)... but this was a few years ago.

ccmiller

thanks for the help guys... turns out it was all of a 1 week sanction! not even worth the arguement about it.. just need to check with my advisor on thursday that i'm being put back onto income based not contribution based! lol

just_trying

Torry_Quine wrote: »

The letter should have told you how long the sanction is for.

It's not contribution based JSA, it's saying that you won't get your NI credits while sanctioned.

You can apply for hardship payments which will need to be paid back.

Hardship payments DO NOT need to be paid back. Hardship payments are paid for example if your claim has been sanctioned and you do not have money for food, electric etc. Your housing benefit and council tax benefit wont stop either as this is based on your income.

Torry_Quine

ccmiller wrote: »

thanks for the help guys... turns out it was all of a 1 week sanction! not even worth the arguement about it.. just need to check with my advisor on thursday that i'm being put back onto income based not contribution based! lol

You will be put back on income based.