I had to withdraw my JSA Claim-Need Advice pls!!

MusicGirl97

Basically, I put in a claim for JSA the other day and had my intital interview with an advisor about my claim today. He told me some information I hadn’t read about or even knew about. He asked me about my previous employment and I said I had been sacked. He then told me that I could still put the claim through, however I could be sanctioned because I’ve only been sacked 5 months, and apparently it needs to have been 6 months for the claim to go straight through without sanction. So I took the decision to withdraw my claim because of this information I was told today, and because he said I only need to wait a month (August) until I can make a claim for universal credit in my area. He proceeded to tell me that by that time it will be 6 months since I got sacked, and they won’t bother to check details with my past employer (about the contract termination); indicating to me that If I wait until August and make a claim for UC, everything will go through as it should.

I just wanted some advice from someone that has been through something similar or knows about this topic. Will I be okay to make a new claim in August like he said? (Because it will have been 6 months since my initial sacking) and on my new claim would I still need to put I was sacked? Because I know it’s best to be truthful and of course the advisor said if you’ve been sacked 6 months the claim will go through straight away without sanctions.
Thank you for any information on this matter guys:D

marliepanda

Being sacked doesn!!!8217;t mean you!!!8217;ll get a six months sanction...

(There are some cases where you acted so badly you basically quit without quitting but...)

Alice_Holt

Are you claiming any other benefits? Housing Benefit?

You are aware of the 5 week wait before the first UC payment?

Are you OK with monthly UC payments?
Have you a computer at home, are you computer literate to manage your UC journal?
Are you aware that the claimant commitment differs between JSA & UC?

Were there any extenuating circumstances in your dismissal? If so, these may reduce the 6 month sanction.
And are you sure that it is a 6 months sanction - did you check (google) that what your work coach told you was correct?

"This is because your Jobcentre Plus work coach is allowed to apply a sanction to your benefit in other words, stop it being paid for a certain number of weeks. It's up to your work coach how long the sanction lasts."
I thought the sanction period for the first high level sanction is 13 weeks (not 6 months) - look at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions-leaflet/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions-how-to-keep-your-benefit-payment

Were you aware you may have been able to apply for a JSA hardship payment?

Did you get advice from your local advice agency / CAB before cancelling the JSA claim?
If not, why not?

Why did you decide to cancel your claim? Why wouldn't you let the claim run and have payment delayed for the remaining sanction; surely this would get you a payment sooner than cancelling it and re-applying in a months time - and then waiting for the payment to be processed, and then having the UC delay in payment (and hope it's not one of the 25% of UC claims delayed for even longer)?

I think your decision to withdraw your JSA claim may have not been in your best interest.
I'd be interested in the comments of other forumites
I do wonder if you misunderstood your work coach about the sanction.

Alice_Holt

"Higher level sanctions
You’ll get a higher level sanction (13 to 156 weeks) if:

you were dismissed for misconduct from your last job
you left your last job without good reason........

How long your benefit payment will be stopped for

1. First higher level sanction in each 52 week period 13 weeks (about 3 months)
2. Each higher level sanction in the next 2 weeks 13 weeks (about 3 months)
3. Another higher level sanction in the next 52 weeks 26 weeks (about 6 months)

The 6 months sanction appears only to apply to a second offence. I wonder if your work coach was incorrect in telling you it was 6 months.
For a first offence it is 13 weeks.

Did you not check this before cancelling your claim?

MusicGirl97

Thank you all for your replies, they are very informative. It seems I may have worded my post wrong. I didn’t mean the actual sanction timeframe. He explained about the sanctions clear enough and I researched about them as soon as i came home.

What he was talking about was the fact that I had only been sacked 5 months, so I should have applied for JSA in August instead of this month. I did my research when I came home and from what I can see any new claimant that has been sacked, they are supposed to wait 6 months (from the date they were sacked) before they can actually apply for the JSA benefit. This is what he explained to me. Because if he was to put it through now, i would run the risk of being sanctioned for a set time. Whereas, when I apply in August, I won’t be sanctioned for anything when my application goes through, because It will be 6 months since I’ve been sacked, which means they wont sanction me. He wasn’t actually talking about the sanction time frame, he was talking about the time frame needed before a new claimant can make a claim (if they have been sacked in their last job).

But yes I’m aware that universal credit will take 5-6 weeks to process my first payment but from what I was advised, it will be backdated. The advisor also told me that universal credit will benefit me better, because of me being single (as in I don’t have any children or a partner). Also i love with my mam and if I let my claim go through and was sanctioned it means she would have to pull out money left and right for so many weeks or months, for me to be able to go to courses and go back and forth to the job centre. And she simply wouldn’t be able to afford it. I was also told that I could apply for hardship but it’s unlikely I’d get it because I live with my mam and other relatives, and they only really give it to people who are living by themselves.

So that is the main reason i decided to withdraw the claim and just wait until UC is available in a months time. Because I was told by that time no one would sanction me when my claim went through. I’m going to ring one of the helplines tomorrow to double check this information but I definitely have read somewhere that people who have been sacked usually have to wait 6 months before they can claim benefits without them being sanctioned once the application goes through

MusicGirl97

Plus I want to use this month to apply for more jobs and hopefully I get a reply and a job offer from an interview.

Catnip63

I feel you have been misinformed here , it's not the work coach that decides if you get a sanction or for how long, the work coach gathers the information and it goes to a decision maker, as you have already served a penance of 5 months that will be taken into account. Also these decisions can take months to come back in the meantime you receive benefit. I would advise you to make a claim to JSA ASAP

tomtom256

What they should have done was process the claim, obtain the reason you where sacked, send an ES85 to the employer to see if the reason matched and then send it to a DM for a decision.


Normally if you have been out of work for 13 weeks or more it's not a big issue and the claim sails through.

JoCha

Do they take into account WHY people were sacked? I mean, it's one thing if you, I dunno, were working in a shop and attacked a customer or something but if you were working in a shop and the owner had to let you go cos they could not afford to pay you anymore then it seems very harsh to apply a sanction before you can claim JSA?

konark

I think you are missing the distincton between 'sacked' i.e losing your job through misconduct or inability and 'made redundant' where the company would like to keep you but doesn't need or can't afford you.

MusicGirl97

Just to clarify from what my employer said, I was sacked because of inability. She praised me for being a good worker and good with customers, however she said my speed was a problem, although I did work speedy in most things, I was a bit slower in the stockroom because it was very disorganised and was too small. She pulled me up about this once, she never mentioned sacking. She wanted to reduce my hours to which I replied that id rather quit because reduction of hours wouldn!!!8217;t be beneficial for my financial situation (I was only working 12 hours with no overtime, my wage was only £5.58 an hour as well). So the day before I was going to hand my notice in, they sacked me there and then, bare in mind I didn!!!8217;t tell them when I was going to hand it in. So they literally got there before me.