Hi, another victim of ESA/;JSA swapover here. 24th feb esa cancelled. No letter to tell me so although apparently it was sent. Never arrived. I found out my claim cancelled when social fund wrote to tell me I couldn't have a loan as I wasn't in receipt of benefits. This was the %th march I got the letter. I then rang JSA line to start new claim for JSA. Lady took all my details and I asked about having it backdated to 25th of Feb and was told that wont be a problem I will add it to your details. ESA then failed to close my claim until the 22nd march which then showed as closed on the 23rd on jobcentre computers. In the time between the 7th Mar and 22nd of March I had made countless calls to ensure ESA weas closed and it never was which meant JSA would not pay me. Now it has been sorted I am expecting payment today. Guess when from... &th March and not the 25th as promised by the lady who tookm my JSA claim initiallly. I only found out today the day after I have signed on that i need to complete a JSA5 form. Funny thing is thisd happened on JSA the last time I claimed it and my pay was backdated and guess what I had no JSA5 form to fill in. I dont understand why their staff at these godforsaken callcentres make things up as they go along. Below is a mail I sent to local papers concerning the troubles I have had on claiming ESA right through to claiming JSA. Hi, I am a disgruntled unemployed person. The Benefits agency is a joke. They need to be shamed into sorting themselves and their systems out. It seems that the only way you get a hassle free life is if your an immigrant into this country and don’t speak English. I have paid my taxes etc and became unemployed during the height of our recent recession. Ever since July 2010 i have had one problem, after another with the benefits agency. Every 2 weeks in fact just because they don’t work together. I recently had a claim which was cancelled due to them losing paperwork. Then cancelled cos they said they said they sent letters which never materialised. Now I got problems again where they shut my claim down and stopped me receiving payments. As a result I had to open a new claim for jobseekers allowance when i was previously on Employment support allowance. The 2 sections when closing and opening new claims don’t talk to each other which means I am now being forced to get into debt with them as I now have to repeatedly get crisis loans. # As a claimant its hard enough to live on 65 quid a week and support my 3 children on weekends. Now due to having to repeatedly having to keep taking crisis loans it means I will have 45-50 quid a week to try to live and support children. I rang them today to see whn my new claim would be payin me. I made this new claim on the 7th of March. I was told that due to my previous ESA claim not being closed I would have to ring them and have them close it and wait a further 2 weeks to receive any payment. This is not my action to take. I did it anyway. Please investigate this and shame them into sorting themselves out. Many people look down on people claiming benefits. They think we are all leeching a living purposely from the government. I in fact hate doing so especially with all the hassles it entails. I recently was in a situation where I had to go to local jobcentre to drop off a sick note to only end up being caught between a shouting and swearing arguement between staff at bristol central jobcentre plus. They were swearing and screaming at each other about the benefit delivery service not doing their job right. I then had to ring the benefit delivery centre and was shouted at by them for calling them at the jobcentre plus’s advice and was told they aren’t doing their job. I am only a claimant, why am i supposed to do all their work for them and still be forced to live like a begger. My self dignity is affected as is my pride and my faith in out government and its systems is very shaken. Please help me to change their ways and make it easier for people like us who are on benefits and looking to find work. Its close to impossible to find work without the money to do so. And all the time spent running from one department to another is also causing time delays in seeking work. Also as I am not currently seeking work due to having to try and sort all this out every single 2 weeks will cause them to cancel my benefit again as they will blame me for not looking for work. Please please help to make lives easier and less daunting for us so we can actually live and find a job and stop all the working people slagging us off all the time. Yours sincerely A disgruntled annoyed and worn out mentally guy.