Confused! On JSA but stil ill!

epitome

Ask the JSA DM when he calls you back to discuss having an open ESA claim tomorrow.

dookar

epitome wrote: »

You do not have to apply for 5 jobs a day - Dookar or someone else will hopefully confirm- It is my understanding that you have to do 3 actions per week to qualify for JSA- that could be apply for 3 jobs per week or 2 job applications and 1 day revamping your CV.

The law requires you to take 3 steps per week to find work unless taking fewer than 3 steps is reasonable given your circumstances.

As epitome states, a step does not necessarily mean applying for a job - looking in the job section of the newspaper is a step, visiting the job centre is a step etc

epitome wrote: »

You may have put on your jobseekers agreement that you would apply to 5 jobs per day - in which case - yes you would probably have to comply with that. This would have been your jobcentre advisor "suggesting" that this is what you must do and you not knowing any better just agreed to do it. In which case you should ask to have your jobseekers agreement rewritten.

A jobseeker's agreement is rarely worth the paper it is written on. It's generally agreed by two people who lack an understanding of the law. Should a person have the requirement to apply for 5 jobs a day on the Jsag and fail to comply with this it will be referred to a decision maker (most likely) who will understand that the law is absolute and allow the case - the DM should also impose a new Jsag on the adviser and claimant

baxb

I Have been on the phone all morning trying to sort this out. Ive had 4 call backs and each person i speak to says different things. Now ESA say if i carry on with ESA seeing as i am unfit to work, i wont get paid until i pass medical. Ok. But for me to wait for medical, i must close down JSA claim. Therefore i wont get any payments at all for at least several months until a decision is recieved from a medical. What do i do? I even recieved in the post this morning my med certs that i sent in with my new ESA claim, a letter came with it asking me to apply for a new claim for ESA. And after speaking to ESA, they say that i already have a claim in... So how am i supposed to live on top of the last 2months without money and wait another 4 or 6months without money? I cant claim a crisis loan as apparently i hit my limit 2years ago. Can i claim a CC Grant?

dreamylittledream

dookar wrote: »

And this is why people shouldn't use the term 'rapid reclaim'

You can't claim both, they are mutually exclusive. My expertise is JSA so I'm happy to help on that front.

For what reason is the JSA claim with a decision maker?

Its not mutually exclusive to have a pending FTA WCA appeal on an ESA claim and to claim JSA (clerically normally as the ESA claim will be the one live on JSAPS) on a Limited Capability for Work basis.

It is mutually to make a a new claim to ESA (which will not be paid into the WCA is attended and passed) and try and make a new JSA claim at the same time. The OP will have to decide between their two 'new' claims.

dreamylittledream

baxb wrote: »

I Have been on the phone all morning trying to sort this out. Ive had 4 call backs and each person i speak to says different things. Now ESA say if i carry on with ESA seeing as i am unfit to work, i wont get paid until i pass medical. Ok. But for me to wait for medical, i must close down JSA claim. Therefore i wont get any payments at all for at least several months until a decision is recieved from a medical. What do i do? I even recieved in the post this morning my med certs that i sent in with my new ESA claim, a letter came with it asking me to apply for a new claim for ESA. And after speaking to ESA, they say that i already have a claim in... So how am i supposed to live on top of the last 2months without money and wait another 4 or 6months without money? I cant claim a crisis loan as apparently i hit my limit 2years ago. Can i claim a CC Grant?

If you are at max debt with Social Fund (£1500+) you can't receive a CCG unless you have a live and rated claim to an Income Based benefit (ESA/JSA/IS) - currently from what you have posted you don't so a CCG could not be paid.

Are you at maximum debt with Social Fund or have you just received 3 'relevant' awards within the last 12 months? If the latter then you could make a fair argument that this situation represents circumstances outside your control - or indeed that it should be considered an alignment loan as you are waiting for a first payment of a new benefit claim. As such a crisis loan should be awarded if there is a serious risk to your health or safety by being without an income.

epitome

baxb,
You can continue with the ESA appeal whilst you claim JSA...

You will not get paid on a new ESA claim or on ESA appeal until you pass a medical or (in the case of a new ESA claim) until 6 months has passed or your condition is different or worsened.

As I see it, you only have two options
1) try to stay on ESA new claim or appeal (without JSA) by following advice in previous post to recieve Crisis Loans while you wait.....(Do you really want to build up all of that debt assuming you lose the appeal?)

2)Claim JSA, while you appeal ESA, until 6 months has passed from ESA claim closure, then claim ESA again. This seems to me, to be your only sensible option.

What did the JSA callback tell you was the delay for payment of JSA?

dookar

dreamylittledream wrote: »

Its not mutually exclusive to have a pending FTA WCA appeal on an ESA claim and to claim JSA (clerically normally as the ESA claim will be the one live on JSAPS) on a Limited Capability for Work basis.

It is mutually to make a a new claim to ESA (which will not be paid into the WCA is attended and passed) and try and make a new JSA claim at the same time. The OP will have to decide between their two 'new' claims.

aye, that's what I said/meant

baxb

I am pulling my hair out! Everyday i am getting call backs from both ESA and JSA but all they are saying is that the claims are at decision maker and to give more time. I have just actually got off phone now with the same responses. Why wont they give me any reason other than telling me to wait another 2 weeks for answer. I stil not been paid anything now for over 10 weeks. I can not apply for crisis loan cos they say i reached my limit near 2 years ago. So what can i do? I also signed on twice. Is there any way to get paid anything? Is there some hardship allowance i can get? This is really bad

epitome

I believe my last post #17 is true and those are your only options.

You cannot claim ESA and JSA at the same time, sooner or later one of those decision makers is going to say "claim denied as xxx is still open" You have to choose which benefit you want to claim.

As said already, if you choose to make a new claim on ESA you will not be paid until you have
had a new medical and passed it
or until you win the tribunal.
or 6 months has passed
or your condition is different or worsened.

You can appeal an ESA decision whilst on JSA

baxb

I understand that i cant claim 2 diff benefits at same time. Everytime i been on phone i have to explain the whole situation again even though surely all the details should be on their system. Whenever i ask what i should i get told "its up to you which one to go for" and i also get told by some of them that one will auto close down once one is accepted. Also why is it that everytime i ask for a call back by the decision makers, i never do and al they say is "give it another couple weeks". How long can it take for them to decide? Also in my new ESA claim that i made over month ago, i stated that my insomnia had seriously worsened as sometimes i only sleep few hours in a week along with depression and stress. Does this count as an acceptable new ESA claim or am i better off waiting for JSA to guarantee any payments?