JSA claim closed due to having a holiday

Brie

I was going to post this under rants and vents but thought this might be a more appropriate place.

So I've had an ongoing JSA claim and was told to attend an appointment early in Oct.  I rang and said I wouldn't be available because I had to go help my mom move into an assisted care flat and wouldn't be back in town for 2 weeks.  There was no problem with the person I talked to on the phone who said that it wasn't unusual for someone to take time off job searching for a particular reason such as I gave, that having a holiday was fine.  I mentioned in the call that my mom doesn't live in the UK and that was still fine - obviously in a modern techno world job searching can (& did) take place from wherever one is.  Net result was that I had a rescheduled appointment booked for when I would be back in town.

Imagine my surprise then to get home to find a letter to say my claim had been cancelled because I was "on holiday or out of the country".  A complete contradiction of what the person on the phone had said.  I emailed the person I was supposed to have an appointment with to ask if I should still attend but got no reply.  I emailed a couple more times in an attempt to get a response and eventually did get a reply (not quite polite) to basically say what was my problem as they had emailed me to say the claim was cancelled and I'd need to reply.  I emailed back to request a copy of the email as nothing had been received.  And all I get is "you have to reapply as you left the country".  Annoying too that the claim was cancelled before I had even left so isn't accurate. 

In my opinion the claims official has, for whatever reason, decided she doesn't like me and was even before this trying to make things awkward (arranging phone meetings that she would miss and then accuse me of not attending etc).  She is ignoring my request for a copy of the email which I believe does not actually exist.  When I have asked why it hasn't been provided I get no response.  

So - is closing a claim standard when someone goes on holiday?  Or leaves the country for 2 weeks??  

And for my own peace of mind - do I let this slide or do I file a complaint?  Money is not the issue for various reasons and in some ways I feel life is too short to focus on something like this.  Then again I am a fairly resilient individual and this has just highlighted for me how bad the system can be.  Some people wouldn't have the ability to complain/comment on being in receipt of rude treatment.

calcotti

Brie said:
So - is closing a claim standard when someone goes on holiday?  Or leaves the country for 2 weeks?? 

Fairly certain that you are not eligible for JSA if out of Great Britain (with a few very limited exceptions). You can certainly lodger complaint if you were misadvised.

Even in GB there is no concept of holiday on JSA - you have to be readily abe and willing to take up work. However this can, as you say, be managed.

kayleighali

Gov.uk states you can only continue to claim if you are going abroad to look for work (not sure whether you were out the country or not). Basically, you need to be actively looking for work to continue your claim, if you are unavailable for work you are not entitled to benefits - exceptions around illness etc

NedS

calcotti said:

Brie said:
So - is closing a claim standard when someone goes on holiday?  Or leaves the country for 2 weeks?? 

Fairly certain that you are not eligible for JSA if out of Great Britain (with a few very limited exceptions). You can certainly lodger complaint if you were misadvised.

Correct, you are not eligible to claim JSA if you are not in the country, so you should close your claim on the day you leave the UK and reclaim on the day you return to the UK and are available to look for work again.

Spoonie_Turtle

From what I can find, there are provisions for temporary absence but only in specific circumstances, and helping a parent doesn't seem - as far as I understand, I could be wrong - to fall into any of those categories. 
[Also assuming these are the correct regulations for the type of JSA the OP is claiming, as they haven't specified and I don't know if there are two different sets or not.]

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/378/regulation/41/made

sheramber

Did you ask if your benefit would be affected?

She may have considered you were advising that you were going away, as you are required to do.

TELLIT01

It's a long time since I claimed JSA but I do remember the claim being closed when I went on holiday and a Rapid Reclaim being made when I came back.  The anomoly in the system was that if you went away for a shorter period, and didn't miss a signing day, they were none the wiser and the claim simply carried on.  It was actually suggest to me by the person I signed on with (DWP person) to do that if practical.

Brie

sheramber said:

Did you ask if your benefit would be affected?

She may have considered you were advising that you were going away, as you are required to do.

I didn't ask if my benefit would be affected.  I asked if I was allowed to have a holiday while collecting JSA and was told yes.  

I'm not going to go back and open a new claim as frankly there is very little for me to gain, compared to the annoyance of dealing with a particular ignorant rude and plain nasty DWP staff member.  I shall look at whether there's a way for me to complain about her behaviour as I don't think it should be ignored or swept under the carpet.    

McKneff

Be careful. 
Not claiming benefit means no NI credits and will affect some future benefit claim and can also affect your state pension 

Brie

McKneff said:

Be careful. 
Not claiming benefit means no NI credits and will affect some future benefit claim and can also affect your state pension 

yes - the only reason I was claiming JSA was to get the NI credits and there is some doubt how much benefit it will actually be to me given the fact I worked for 4 months.  I suspect there may be a small amount to pay to ensure I get the full year's allowance so that's what I'm weighing up.  Aggravation versus maybe £200 paid out.