Hi,

Just a quick question on Jobseekers Allowance.

I recently claimed JSA, completed the phone interview and then attended an appointment at the jobcenter to sign all the documents.

They gave me a book with appoitment dates, the first one is on the 2nd of august and then on the 16th of august then every two week from the 16th of august.

My concern is i wont be able to attend the appointment on the 2nd of august, so is this an signing on day or just an appointment?

What will happen if i miss the appointment but phone them today to let them know i cant make the appointment? what are acceptable reasons?

Thank you in advance for anyone who replies.

It sounds like your first signing day to me. If you miss this appointment without good reason you would lose a days benefit. If you go in the next day and sign on they would take reasons for not signing from you

You need to ring them and tell them you cannot make this appointment - if you are at the doctors/hospital etc I'm sure they can ask for an appointment card - but don't quote me!

generally the best thing to do is by hook or by crook make you signing day free as to not sign causes all types of problems.

i know they dont close your claim until there has been 5 days without contact from you and at that point you would need to make a Rapid Reclaim

Wait for Erika the Font of all knowledge when it comes to benefits to come online and she should be able to advise you much better than i can.

Hope you get sorted

TB

Hi thanks for replying back.

I am not trying to [problem] the system or anything, this is the first time i have ever signed on, i have been studying for the past 5 years so i have been supporting my self through student loans and part time work.

I definately cant make the appointment on the 2nd of october, but from what i have read claims have been stopped for missing appointments.

Just say for example i call them on the 2nd of august two hours before my signing on time and tell them i am not feeling well and cant attend the appointment and wish to rearrange the appointment, what would happen? would you need to provide a doctors letter or something?

I will wait for erika to reply to me, and thanks for giving some advice.

Hi linz22

im just going from my previous experience to be honest - I had a nightmare when i wanted to miss my signing day

and never in a million years would i say you were trying to [problem] the system - im sorry if i gave that impression.

good luck x

Hi,

No i wasnt saying you were accusing me of [causing problems] the system i just wanted to let people know thats all i appreciate your help.

I dont really mind if they take a days allowance off just wondered what would happen as i have never been in this situation before, and my jobcenter works on the system, so the system generates the next avialable appointment which could be in 2, 3 days etc, so what would the procedure be in this situation.

Do you have any idea how often erika visits consumer forums?

I'm a vampire - I only come out at night!

Is it 2nd August (as in, this Monday)? or 2nd October? (you've given two seperate dates). If it's October, that's an age away and rearranging it will be no problem.

If it's this Monday, contact them first thing in the morning (after 9am). Don't leave it until the last minute - otherwise you may get a million and one questions as to why you didn't contact them earlier in the day if you knew you could not make it.

Call them and tell them why you can't make it, and ask if you can re-arrange for later in the week (or the next day if possible). Depending on the reason they may lose you a days' benefit, do nothing at all or terminate your claim. They are unlikely to terminate your claim unless you fail to attend without providing any reason.

Without knowing why you can't attend it's very difficult to make a guess at what they may do; but I can appreciate you might not want to tell us why you can't go. Bearning this in mind, I can only advise you generally. In general if you have a very good reason why you can't make it (which I don't know), and this is the first time you have asked to re-arrange your signing (which it is) there should be very little problem. If you have a reason which is not considered good enough to cancel an appointment on that day, then you can have your claim sanctioned (money will not be pid for a period).

If you do happen to be unwell on a signing day, you phone them up at the earliest possible opportunity and tell them you are ill and unable to make the trip to the Jobcentre and ask to re-arrange your signing day. They won't ask for a Dr's note for a minor illness, no. They may ask you to complete a self certification of your illness when you do return to sign on, though I'm not sure if they do still do this - they used to. It was a form you completed (one A4 sheet) with the date you were ill and what your symptoms were. They do understand that people get sick.

If you miss this appointment without good reason you would lose a days benefit.

This has recently been changed to a week's benefit. This is now a big deal because housing benefit and council tax would stop for that week too. The reason you cannot attend now has to be an unavoidable issue which you can prove. Why can you not attend on the 2nd, linz22?

If you do happen to be unwell on a signing day, you phone them up at the earliest possible opportunity and tell them you are ill and unable to make the trip to the Jobcentre and ask to re-arrange your signing day. They won't ask for a Dr's note for a minor illness, no. They may ask you to complete a self certification of your illness when you do return to sign on, though I'm not sure if they do still do this - they used to. It was a form you completed (one A4 sheet) with the date you were ill and what your symptoms were.

Yes, the "self certificate" JSA28 is in use but remember that your sickness period cannot be longer than 14 days.

Hi thanks for replying back.

 

I am not trying to [problem] the system or anything, this is the first time i have ever signed on, i have been studying for the past 5 years so i have been supporting my self through student loans and part time work.

 

I definately cant make the appointment on the 2nd of october, but from what i have read claims have been stopped for missing appointments.

 

Just say for example i call them on the 2nd of august two hours before my signing on time and tell them i am not feeling well and cant attend the appointment and wish to rearrange the appointment, what would happen? would you need to provide a doctors letter or something?

 

I will wait for erika to reply to me, and thanks for giving some advice.

Unless you have a cast iron good reason for not attending you will get your benefit stopped. The system is that inflexible and it is monitored by people who will prosecute the rules unfailingly. Expect nothing less from the jobcentre and you won't have problems. Ring them up a couple of hours before and they will think you're swinging the lead.

Hi thank you for the replies.

Ok i will be honest the main reason why i cannot attend the appointment on the 2nd of august is because i went to see my boyfriend who lives in norwich, he is not well at all, suffering from depression and i had to see him. I am in norwich at the moment, my jobcenter is in manchester and i dont have any money to get back home, so i am waiting till monday to get some money from brother who will be transferring some in to my account, he doesnt get his money until monday otherwise i would have travelled back earlier.

I dont think the jobcenter will see this as a valid reason, what do you think?

If you had contacted the jobcentre and explained that you wanted to go away from home then you could have completed a Going Away From Home form and been treated as available for up to 14 days. Now that you are out of the area you can't do this. You could contact them and say that you have had to leave the area due to an emergency and request to sign out of the area at the nearest jobcentre.

This would mean that you would have to contact the local Norwich jobcentre and make an appointment to sign on an ES90 and show evidence of a jobsearch but it would mean no late signing appointment on your return to Manchester.

Your jobcentre can refuse this request though they usually don't.

My son was ill with a stomach upset on a claiming day, I rang up first thing and changed appointment and it was fine. They didn't ask for anything. It's unreasonable to expect someone who can't stop throwing up to go and sign, however inflexible they are!

Hi,

Well my boyfriend tried to commit suicide so things are pretty serious, but he hasnt been to any doctors or anything so i cant really prove anything and i wont ask him to provide me with evidence that he tried to commit suicide thats just wrong.

If i phoned the jobecentre and asked them if i could sign on at the norwich jobcentre due to an emergency, will they ask the specific reason and evidence?

what are the chances of them actually accepting this and not deducting any allowance?

If anything id rather lose the allowance my boyfriend needs me more.

bump

Hi,

 

Well my boyfriend tried to commit suicide so things are pretty serious, but he hasnt been to any doctors or anything so i cant really prove anything and i wont ask him to provide me with evidence that he tried to commit suicide thats just wrong.

 

If i phoned the jobecentre and asked them if i could sign on at the norwich jobcentre due to an emergency, will they ask the specific reason and evidence?

 

what are the chances of them actually accepting this and not deducting any allowance?

 

If anything id rather lose the allowance my boyfriend needs me more.

There's a degree of discretion available to JCP officers in these sorts of cases, so it's hard to say what the response would be. I'd suggest you should phone them. They will ask about the nature of the emergency, but I don't think it's very likely that they would ask for supporting evidence in a case like this. If you would sacrifice the allowance if it was necessary to do that in order to be with your boyfriend, then it seems to me you don't have much to lose by making the request.

Thank you for replying to my post.

So wouldnt it be better to just call in sick and say im not well enough to sign on?

I really dont want to go over things with the jobcentre and explain everything in detail im not really bothered about the payment just dont want to get the benefit stopped, of course if there is a chance of getting the payment then that would help.

It's the best option but be aware that if you are signing on in the future and you are genuinely sick that would be a second period of sickness in the claim, one more and the claim would be closed and you would need to reclaim.

Hi

If you called your jobcentre you shouldn't have to go into specific details - maybe you could just say your boyfriend is seriously ill. It's possible to be "treated as available" under certain circumstances - this should be classed as a "domestic emergency", after all, they can happen to anyone!

You should be aware that you only get two "periods of sickness" (of up to 14 days each) I think in a rolling year, so you don't want to actually be ill and end up getting your claim closed.

You could try the ES90 form at the jobcentre in Norwich - they'll have to call your jobcentre in Manchester to see if they'll accept it, and then a copy should be faxed through, However this form is specifically intended if you were "Going Away From Home To Look For Work", so you may be asked for evidence of any job search in Norwich.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

Ooops cross-posted with you there insyder - I need to type faster!

Hi,

I have a question about JSA claims. I went on JSA in july this year up until november where i worked for a week which i told the jobcentre about and when i went to sign on i was told because i had worked over a certain amount of hours i had to sign off and do a rapid reclaim. Well the jobcentre signed me off and i phoned DPW to do a rapid reclaim and everything got sorted out within a week. I am now signing JSA agian and i have attended the first sign on for the rapid reclaim.

My question is my rapid reclaim a whole new claim where i can have 2 sick periods agian? I have already used 2 sick periods before i did the rapid reclaim.

bump

Bump

The general rule here is that your old and new claims will be "linking claims". I used to process benefits, but not JSA, so you may wish to verify this, but in general linking claims are treated as if they were continuous. In other words, your previous sick periods may well still be considered for your new claim.

If you have more than two periods of sick within a twelve month period then on the third period you have to sign off and claim ESA until you are fit for work again.

It doesnt matter if it is a whole new claim or if you have had a couple of rapid reclaims. They look at the number of periods of sickness during a year.

The rolling year starts the date of the 1st date of your 1st period of sickness, for example if you were claiming and had your first period of sickness for one week from 2nd January 2009 that starts your rolling year period. You can have another period of sickness but if you have a third period before 1st January 2010 then you have to sign off and claim ESA.

Hope that helps.