suspended claim for JSA

[downbutnotout]

hello all and I hope you can help. 2 weeks ago my son was due to sign on but he was away at a friends over the weekend got 'pie eyed' on the Sunday and missed his signing on time on Monday morning. When he eventually got through to them on the phone he told them that he had been for an interview and that is why he did not attend.(Daft idiot):mad:Anyway they sent him a letter asking for the details of the intervieiw etc. so he wrote back and told them the truth this time. He has recieved no money from JSA for 4 weeks now, and this morning when he went down to sign on again he was told that his claim had been suspended. He was given a rapid re-claim form to fill in and return. He was also told that he has no right of appeal and that he should have told the job centre he was out of town. Even though it was a Sunday and only 4 miles away?

So could anyone advise him as to whether there is a right of appeal, and what his next move should be. Thanks in anticipation.

[ErikaPNP]

He has one month from the date the decision was made to suspend his claim in which to appeal. Are you certain the appeal has been suspended and not terminated?

 

If it is a suspension, he should not need to reclaim and can in the meantime apply for hardship payments. To request hardship payments, he needs to complete a form called a JSA10.

 

If it is terminated, he can still appeal; but he has to show "good cause" for not signing on.

 

The jobcentre are correct in that if he is not available to sign on then he has to advise them of this in advance with a reason why, and/or if he is going away within the UK and for that period he will not be available for work. If he is unable to advise them in advance, then he must advise them as soon as possible of the reason for failing to sign on and show good cause.

 

For example if a claimant was rushed to hospital in an emergency situation - they can't vey well advise in advance that they won't be able to sign on, and can show good cause for not being there, and this can be proven

 

If a person was called on friday at 5pm and asked to attend an interview on Monday at 9am, and they are supposed to sign on at 10am....and cannot get there in time - again the person could show "good cause", and again this can be proven.

 

Being unable to sign on because of the morning after the night before is unlikely to be viewed as "good cause"

 

Failure to sign without "good cause" can result in a claim being sanctioned or terminated, and he would have signed a Jobseekers agreement to the effect that he would sign on at a specific day and time, so to be honest it is unlikely an appeal would overturn the decision - an appeal can also take several months if forwarded to the tribunal service.

[james86]

He phoned them after and also lied to them. An appeal won't get very far in reality.

 

You need a good reason to miss signing on like the post above says, and being "away" doesn't count, it's generally just interviews, childcare or hospital and you need to prove you did those things most of the time.

[james86]

It's probably not even worth backdating the claim too far on the Rapid Reclaim either when he does that, it'll end up getting turned down for the same reasons, and just delay payments and the processing of the claim.

 

Best bet is to get the Rapid Reclaim running asap, and take it as a lesson in life unfortunately. I mean, without meaning to sound harsh, in reality it was his fault. Had he been working and failed to turn up he would have been sacked, or at least disciplined in the same way.