Left work voluntarily \ JSA Stopped.

Noodled24

Hi all,

Was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction with a couple of issues I've had.

The first is with the company I left. I was taken on as a member of "customer support". However between accepting the job offer and starting this seemed to change. They'd decided to incorporate customer retention into "support". Long story short, I accepted an IT support job and started work in a sales position, but unlike the sales team I wasn't earning commission. Infact the "retention" side of things basically ment I was doing the sales teams job for them.

It wasn't a great place to work, but I decided to stick it out. The final straw came when I started taking calls from angry customers claiming we were taking money from their credit cards without their permission. Sure enough, more often than not there were notes on the company CRM software along the lines of "Customer has cancelled direct debit, so just took payment on their card" or "Customer doesn't know we're taking payments from their card so don't tell them!!" - the latter I made a screen grab of and emailed to myself.

I'd stuck the job out for a few months. I could deal with the sales side of things as I'd done it before. But attempting to justify why we'd debited customers credit cards without their permission is impossible. More importantly I think - illegal?

I left the company, used my last wage to support myself for a couple months. I was unable to find a new job in those months. I had to sign on. All was well for a couple of weeks. Then came the letter saying my JSA was being stopped - which I half expected. Annoyed that they refuse to take into account the fact that after leaving my job it was 2 months before I made a claim for JSA.

I'm now debating if I should Appeal the decision made against me by DWP. However I'm not sure if there is some kind of whistleblowing procedure that I should, or should have followed upon leaving my job? However if this is going to be a lengthy procedure and possibly resulting in legal action would I be better off just claiming JSA Hardship payments? - of which there seems to be no information about on Direct.gov

Any help would be much appreciated.

Randvegeta

Dont you have to wait 6 months to get JSA? In any case, it seems a little innapropriate to claim JSA knowing that you QUIT your job.

That being said, you can try and blow the whistle or use it as an excuse for leaving the company, believing it is 'illegal' to take payment without the knowledge or authorization of the customer.

Or, you can try and extort the company lol.

DCFC79

Or you put it all behind you and focus on securing another job whether temp/perm or pt/ft.

irishjohn

How many months were you in the job for?
Was there a job description?
Did the actual job not match the job description?
What did you use as your reason for resigning?

Knowing that JSA is not payable to anyone who gives up a job of their own volition, whatever the circumstances, did you do enough to protect yourself and aim to ensure that JSA could be paid to you if required?

Is the best course of action to ask yourself what you have learned from how you have handled this period of employment / unemployment and then do what you need to do to acquire an income?

Noodled24

irishjohn wrote: »

How many months were you in the job for?
Was there a job description?
Did the actual job not match the job description?
What did you use as your reason for resigning?

There was a job description on Direct.Gov. I don't have a copy of it since I applied to an e-mail address via that site
The job was Technical/Customer support. When I started the job "Customer support" is what I did for the first couple of days. I was then told that I was being too helpful and had to shorten the time I spent on the phone to customers. A couple of days later they shifted the office around, a couple more people were on our team, and I was being pushed to sell the bespoke websites.

I started there last September and decided to stick it out and keep looking for something else. I'd interviewed for a couple of other jobs while I'd been there, was called in for a second interview which seemed to go well. I suppose if I'm honest it was a mix of over-confidence on my part and just being glad to get out of this other place. So I left.

The company I worked for already has a couple of threads on these forums about their conduct. Along with much more scattered over the web. (I'm reluctant to mention them but if you PM me I can tell you)

irishjohn wrote: »

Knowing that JSA is not payable to anyone who gives up a job of their own volition, whatever the circumstances, did you do enough to protect yourself and aim to ensure that JSA could be paid to you if required?

Well, again maybe my own stupidity here, but I thought the fact that the company was taking money from customers cards without authorization would count towards my leaving.
I suppose I could have approached a manager there, but it seemed a bit pointless, the staff there were not at all shy about documenting things like this on the CRM software. The sales manager would regularly make calls claiming to be calling from Facebook.

irishjohn wrote: »

Is the best course of action to ask yourself what you have learned from how you have handled this period of employment / unemployment and then do what you need to do to acquire an income?

Sadly, the only things I think I've learned is not to be so eager when offered a job, because if things don't work out, you're basically screwed. That along with the fact that things would have probably been easier had I done something to get myself sacked... although I'm not sure how easy that would have been given some of the things that went on there.

Noodled24

Randvegeta wrote: »

Dont you have to wait 6 months to get JSA?

No.
If they decide to though, they can stop your JSA for upto 6 months.

Randvegeta wrote: »

In any case, it seems a little innapropriate to claim JSA knowing that you QUIT your job.

I don't see why. Given I quit my job, that now means I'm a Job Seeker, so I'm surely the target market for their Allowance.

I've never understood why the assumption is "if you left your job it means you don't want to work" If that was the case I'd just go to the doctors and tell him I'm all sad lonely and depressed, get my self signed off for a few months.

Randvegeta wrote: »

That being said, you can try and blow the whistle or use it as an excuse for leaving the company, believing it is 'illegal' to take payment without the knowledge or authorization of the customer.
Or, you can try and extort the company lol.

I'm not sure blackmail is the way to go. I'm curious as to why you put quote marks round the word 'illegal'.

A note on the company system from an employee about a customer: "Customer didn't and doesn't know that we're taking money from his card SO DON'T TELL HIM!!! - is a direct quote.

I'm tempted to track down the customer and send him a copy of the screenshot.

irishjohn

make sure you obtain a job description for any job you apply for. Then if you decide to accept it make sure you have a contract of employment, if one is not given, I think the job description / job offer in writing would be sufficient if any problems arose where you were given a different role in reality.

Randvegeta

I don't see why. Given I quit my job, that now means I'm a Job Seeker, so I'm surely the target market for their Allowance.

I've never understood why the assumption is "if you left your job it means you don't want to work" If that was the case I'd just go to the doctors and tell him I'm all sad lonely and depressed, get my self signed off for a few months.

As far as I see things (perhaps I am wrong?), you had job and were getting paid. You decided you did not like your job and decided to quit. Now, it's all well and good you quit for good reasons, and they may have been the ethical reasons, but to voluntarily quit your job, and ask tax payers to pay your way, seems a bit selfish. This is my personal opinion of course, and you may think differently.

Let me ask you? Where do you draw the line? At what point is it unacceptable to willingly quite your job just to go on benefits afterwards?

If you knew you would NOT get JSA, would you still have quit?

When you do eventually find a new job (hopefully soon aye?), do you want to pay more taxes to let someone else claim a bunch of benefits because he doesn't like the work he's in?

Just a thought.

agrinnall

I don't think it'll hurt to appeal, but I also don't think it's likely that you'll succeed. Without knowing the company or even the industry it's hard to know what whistleblowing procedure you might have been able to follow, but the fact that you did nothing about it before leaving to me means that you'll have difficult using your issues with the company as a valid reason for leaving. I think you have shot yourself in the foot and you'll either need to tighten your belt until you are able to claim JSA again or take any job you can so you've at least got some money coming in.

Decanus

just in terms of the benefits alone, even if you are not eligible for JSA, would you not be entitled to income support? contribution based income support is there for all I thought (as long as you have paid in enough NI of course)

I do sympathise with your situation, but unfortunately the benefits system does not really care why you left the job, at least initially. Their view is that you left your job voluntarily, did not try to address any grievance while there, and had 2 months to take any action, but didn't. Suck I know, but thats how they would see it.

I would appeal though, because you can go into more detail about the circumstances, and they will look at it in more depth.Plus, maybe they can backdate the claim to when you left, meaning you have already lasted 2 months without JSA, and have that taken into account.

Remember, JSA is stopped for UP TO 6 months, so may be only 3 months for example, depending on your case.

I would also report this company, but probably to Trading Standards initially; that would also help your appeal.

hcb42

you should have attempted to sign on straight away - you would not have got any benefits, or unlikely you would have done, but the clock would have been ticking for the sanction..