My mum recently recieved a letter saying that she owes £500, she was made redundant in may/june 2007 then was unemployed until december. In december she worked for Marks and Spencers and stayed for a couple of months. She has not worked in the past year and is receiving pension. She has no idea how she has come to owe this amount as she has checked her payslips and has always used the correct tax codes etc To be honest I don't understand the situation very much myself but wondered if anyone could offer any advice on how this might have happened and what she can do about it?

I can't believe I've been unsuccessfully looking for work for 6 months now It really is tough out there at the moment and, despite lowering my standards a long time ago and frequently broadening my search to include more and more types of job, I've still gotten nowhere- half the time I count myself lucky to get so much as a rejection letter as the majority of applications I've made have just been ignored- even for roles where I'm quite clearly more than capable/qualified I now have my 6 month review at the jobcentre- tomorrow I have no idea what they're going to say or do and am very nervous Can anyone offer any advice? I am doing a saturday course in event management (which I already have 5 years working experience of but thought a qualification might help given the current state of things) and it was mentioned a few weeks ago that it might interfere with my JSA, is this true? (surely that would be riddiculous as it's a step towards increasing my job prospects)

it's going to sound ridicculous I suppose but I'm in a long term, long distance relationship and weekends are the only time I get to see my partner. I doubt they will see that as reasonable thing is I really do want a job, this one isn't exactly what I'm looking for but I would jump at it if it weren't for the weekends and working til 10pm.

I recieved a call from my job centre advisor about a vacancy but I have just looked online to check the details and (besides the fact that the pay is so poor it's almost offensive) the hours state: "38 hours per week between 8am & 10pm 5 days out of 7" am I allowed to refuse to work weekends? When I filled out my js agreement I was told that as long as I am prepared to work a reasonable amount of hours then I don't have to work weekends, is this true? I am happy to work any hours between 9am and 7pm mon to fri

It went well I suppose It wasn't as scary as I was expecting (noone told me off, stopped my money or tried to force me into some shelf stacking job!) I was lucky I think as the person I was scheduled to see was off sick and so I met with my initial advisor who is a very lovely old man. He seemed shocked and impressed with all the work I'd put into my job search and all the supporting evidence I'd bought with me (a huge depressing stack of email application confirmations and rejection emails ) My other worry (besides being forced to spend the rest of my life working at Nettos) was an events role I'd seen on the Job Centre website which, on the surface, seemed perfect for me, I was quite excited until I looked at the employers website - not the kind of place I see myself... Anyway. The general outcome of the meeting was that I will carry on pretty much as I have been doing. The advisor even said imself that the 13 week meeting is pointless as there's "nothing he can do for me until I've been unemployed for at least 6 months" I asked what he could do if it had been 6 months and he mentioned a few training schemes which I think were similar to an apprenticeship (though with my level of experience I'm not sure they'd take me anyway),] I said I'd really like to try that as there's so little work out there but he said that "government regulations" mean that he isn't even able to put me forward until it's been 6 months The area that I live is consdered "affluent" apparently (they should come and visit the estate where I live! they ll soon see that's rubbish!) and so there is no Princes Trust help available. I have 5 years experience, a cv which I'm constantly told is "fantastic" and yet I can't even get an interview anywhere This recession thing is driving me mad:mad:

Thank you! To what extent will they want to widen my range? I'd hate to get shoved onto a supermarket checkout or something, I've been doing the job for 5 years and am good at it, it's just a terrible time for jobs in general. I've started looking at a few jobs I don't really want to do- such as PA/reception work, but only on a part time basis so that I could carry on my job search (I've tried job hunting whilst working full time before and it's virtually impossible) should I tell them that I've been doing this? or will they use it as an excuse to shove me into any old PA role?

lol, thanks- I'm an events coordinator, hence the name!

I have an interview tommorrow with the job centre, in place of my usual sign in. I don't really understand what this is and I'm a little nervous:( It tells me to bring evidence of job searching so I've printed out all the email responses I have received confirming jobs I've applied for and, in the rare instances when someone has been courteous enough to let me know my application has been unsuccessful, some rejection emails too. I've been trying really hard to find work but, with the state of things at the moment and the fact that my job is quite a specific one, I am still unemployed after 3 months I'm really unsure as to what will happen and I'm really worried about them stopping my allowance. Does anyone know what it's about? Can they stop my allowance for no reason? Help!

Thanks! I've not recieved anything yet but i called a week ago and they said it was still being processed. Myabe I should mention- my tax claim was for last year, but i have only just signed for jsa, so maybe the fact that it is in two different tax years will affect this... :-?

Obviously that should've read "jsa & tax rebates"! I have a terrible habit of making typos in my thread titles which are then un-editable Last year I had a lot of time of work as I had to have several operations then earlier this year my contract ended. Due to my time off I didn't not meet the minimum earning allowance and filed a tax rebate claim (which was then delayed as I sent a copy of a payslip rather than an original) This has still not been settled. I am now claiming job seekers allowance as I no longer have any money left to support myself and have been as yet unable to find a job. Does jsa affect my tax rebate?

Thanks, I've done some googling now and realised this. I thought it was a standard entitlement They haven't really helped look for work, I've been looking myself, I'm an events co-ordinator and it's quite hard to find suitable work- despite my 6 years of experience a lot of jobs statethat you must have a degree I asked in my signing session about help searching and any courses/training opportunities that I could use and the response was "we don't really do that, you just have to keep checking the (job search) machines" I want a job! I hate being poor. Really thought there would be more help out there.

I have been searching for a job for 4 months with no luck, I was living off what was left of my previous earnings and always thought that I would find a job. I ran out of money and had to sign on, they asked if I wanted to back date my claim and I said yes and even provided evidence of my job search. I only backdated one month as I was worried about going back to far and it being disallowed. It has now been over two weeks since I first applied (and one week since my first sign on date) and I had not heard anything so I called my advisor who then told me to call a main number to ask for a payment. They agreed to make payment of £51 which made little sense to me as I thought it was £60 per week (I am over 25) this will not clear into my account until next wednesday my main problem is that they have disallowed my backdated claim on the griounds that I "didn't not meet the requirements" i'm so upset, I really need the money and I can't see why they would disallow it when I even provided evidence of my job search. What can I do? Can I appeal? How do they make their decisions? I delberately didn't sign on straight away as I thought I would find a job quicker and so I lived off what little money I had until I had literally none left (which in hindsight I now know was a mistake) Any advice much appreciated