Hi guys, just a bit of advice please.

When my employement ended last year I started a claim for income support during this time i found another job and my lone parent advisor ended my claim and sorted my tax credit etc...unfortunately this job only lasted a week as apparantly i was a bit slow-thus income support claim restarted. My partner moved in March this year and he works full time so I knew I couldn't claim income support anymore. I rang my lone parent advisor to let them know, i also asked if i could claim jsa. She gave me a number to ring to ask.

Turns out i was entitled to jsa contributions based which i have been claiming since 3rd April.

A week later i receive a form from IS to check my details, new details filled in and form sent back. Assume all is now sorted.

Then....my payment doesn't go in the bank today. I've rang JSA who say it's been suspended as i'm still getting income support and they are just waiting for confirmation that IS claim has been closed. So i ring income support. Apparently my claim was not ended..WTF!!! and i have had 2 payments. Now in all fairness i did notice i had a bit of extra money but had received a letter from tax credits saying that an additional payment may be made in april and dont worry it doesn't have to be paid back and as i only have a basic bank account i don't have internet banking. I assumed it was tax credits so spent it.

Anyway I tell the income support woman all this ( very friendly ) she says she'll close my claim but there will be an overpayment referal and i will get a letter. I told her i don't understand how IS claim wouldn't have stopped automatically once i started JSA and why I needed to inform them when my lone parent advisor took care of it all first time round. Madness.

What i'd like to know is will they stop all my jsa till this is paid back, it's not much but that's not the point. I also don't want them to stop my JSA claim. Any idea's what happens next?

They shouldn't stop all of your JSA from what I gather, they would usually take installments out of it. Sounds like they have suspended it whilst they work out the over payment.

What used to happen was that the computer would recognise that you had an income from another benefit source and rather than leave you with an overpayment the payment system would not pay you for the period of overlapping benefit.

Hoping that makes sense.

The lone parent adviser has a form to complete when you call to declare starting work over 16 hours per week but they do not have the authority to have your claim closed for any other change in your circumstances. You should have been advised to report the change yourself either by telephone or in writing.

Must have changed because when I came off IS (end of 2008) the lone parent advisor did that for me in the job centre.

Technically the only circumstances when a claim can be closed is as follows, verbal notification from the customer (or legal representative), a wriiten letter requesting the closure of the claim or declaring a change of circumstances which will result in closure of the claim or if further information is required by the BC and there is no reply within a specified timescale.

The only time a claim can be closed without any of these is when using the In Work Team to declare starting employment exceeding 16 hours per week.

As part of my current job role I deal with claim closures so I am only able to close the claims under the circumstances listed above. It was the same when I processed IS albeit many years ago.