Missing an app`t is suicide if your on JSA ! I`m a postal signer and my paperwork, though sent via 1st class stamp has mysteriously not been delivered/gone missing. I`ve gone 42 days without benefit but was kindly given a small crisis loan to hopefully tide me over till my JSA re-starts. I wasnt informed that I had in effect missed an app`t and as in other posts, only found out when I checked my bank account thinking there`d just been a slow payment. I can only presume that like my 1st class stamped envelope went awol, the 2cnd class stamped envelope with the decision and the reasons why my JSA was stopped has simlarly dissapeared into the royal mail ether. I`m now being advised, and actually will, get my future payment envelopes sent by registered mail or at the very least some form of proof of posting which should help in an appeal which hopefully wont ever come about again. If you look at your appointment form it says, (or at least it says on mine) not to bother phoning in after the missed app`t, no 5 day grace period, I even attended an app`t the day after the missed, scheduled one but that still, despite assurances from my advisor lead to my JSA being stopped and a rapid re-sign my only option. The whole system is flawed and angled in the DWP/JSA/Governments favour.

Basically the deal with DWP/JSA is they say jump and you say how high !! Comply or die (financially). I`m not aware of the ins & outs of "new deal" but been involved with the new "Work programme" with it`s association with the Quango "Ingeus". One advisor was great, tried hard to find suitable jobs/work, after a set period of time I was passed over to some jobsworth who after only a short term with Ingeus went off sick for 5 weeks and then quit !! The annoying thing about a so called "Rapid re-sign" is that you have to fill in all the same forms, give all the information all over again when it`s still on the DWP/JSA advisors data-base one finger push away !!

Why bother signing off if when working for any agency theres the obvious risk your not going to get full time work ?? Better to just take what they give you surely then declare any earnings on your next jsa vouchers thereby obviating the need to go through the "not so" rapid re-sign dross !

Being a day late is punishable by death !! Financial death. I recently sent my jsa vouchers by 1st class mail, it should have got to Peterborough for processing, (approx 50 miles away up M11/A14/A1) but didnt. I called on the tuesday following the bank holiday to enquire after a late payment of my jsa only to be told that my claim had been closed down !! Similarly to not turning up on the day, being late because of postal problems means exactly the same but theyre under no compunction to inform you ! I`m presuming that just as my own postal vouchers have dissapeared somewhere in the royal mail system, that the letter from them telling my they stopped my jsa got similarly "lost". What is so frustrating about the so called "rapid re-sign" system is the you only look to get paid 7 days after a follow up appointment, presumably they think your working and doing multiple appt`s is in their reasoning disruptive if you are working, which of course you shouldnt be. I turned up late once, was allowed to see an advisor after i foned to explain my non appearance, was told by the advisor that all was well and not to worry but yet my claim was still cancelled !. I appealed the decision and after about 5 weeks was back paid. You read about all of europe and the worlds people coming here and having all kinds of benefits given them even though they havent paid a penny into our Tax and N.I system and you try to be honest and get treated with complete disdain.

That manager needs to be reported !