New Style JSA

duckychick

My daughter applied for JSA on 25th October then heard nothing until she received a letter saying claim closed because they couldnt reach her. She checked phone and post and nothing had been sent. After finally speaking to someone on helpline they gave her an appt at job centre on 23rd November followed by another appt on 6th December at which they told her no notes had been updated so the claim had not been processed. Another call to the helpline who then told her that as she had not been to her work commitment appt case was closed. She explained she had attended 2 appointments and that the job centre had told her to ring the helpline. They said her claim would have to be started from scratch and she would have to attend a new work commitment appt, she questioned this so they said they would pass urgently to new claims and get them to ring her.  3 days later still nothing.              Is this correct?  It doesnt sound fair to me as she has done everything they asked her to.  Is there another route of enquiry other than the helpline number which takes an hour each time to get through to .   

tacpot12

There is no other route that I'm aware off, but she can and should ask for her claim to be backdated so that she doesn't lose out.

huckster

What has been said sounds a little strange.

If a commitment appointment had been attended the Job Centre would not tell someone to ring the helpline. The Job Centre following commitment appointment being attended send off an outcome form by email to the JSA service centre asking for the claim to be processed. The Job Centre as part of the process enter evidence onto the JSA claim system to enable payments to be released, once the service centre have actioned the Job Centres email.

I don't think your daughter has attended a Job Centre commitments appointment for a JSA claim. JSA check the system Job Centres use for appointments and they would see whether it had been attended or not.

As has been said make a new claim asking for backdate to original claim date and ask for urgent commitment appointment

When you mention attending 2 appointments, I wonder if daughter has also made a claim to Universal Credit ?

duckychick

Hi, Yes she has attended a commitment appointment, I went with her and the paperwork was completed by the lady at the job centre who said she had entered everything she needed to and the claim would be processed. She then made her a further 2 week follow up appt (which she has also attended) . It was at this appt that she advised the claim had not been processed,no notes had been entered onto the system and she could not do anything else to help, she then said to ring the helpline and  wrote her a list of questions for her to ask the helpline.   After the first appointment she received a letter from JSA, dated 4 days before she attended , saying her claim could not be backdated as this was against the law - we have no idea why she received this letter and the lady at the job centre was non the wiser either.   There just doesnt seem to be anybody who can actually tell her what is going on !   Its all a bit strange. 

huckster

Has your Daughter met eligibility criteria for New Style JSA, one of which is paying sufficient National Insurance during the qualifying years ?

Suggest your Daughter calls the JSA helpline on Monday.