Date of claim JSA

[tracybeaker]

Afternoon folks,

 

can any one advice me on whether your date of claim for JSA is from the first point of contact ie your telephone call to the contact centre + 3 waiting days?

 

if possible would anyone be able to link me the relevant regulations?

 

a little background....

 

My brother has made a claim for JSA not too sure whether © or (IB), the jobcentre for his postcode is actually futher away that the one he lives closest to but this one is not in his postal district (manchester/salford boundary). His appointment should have been for Monday. He received a call this morning from the jobcentre where the interview was to be held asking if he would consider using the jobcentre nearer to him but with a rescheduled appointment for Thurday ie today. He stated that he would just like to get the claim up and running so would prefer to keep the original appointment. He turned up on Monday to find the no trace of his appointment just the Thurday one showing on system. He had the letter they had sent him with Monday appointments details but to no avail they just point blank refused to see him or to honour this appointment. There were no notes put into LMS about the reschduled appointment either.

 

On attending his appointment this morning at the other jobcentre they told him that his claim would run from today not from first contact and they would not backdate it as they felt there wasn't reason to !! They even hinted at the fact that they felt he had rescheduled this appointment to be nearer his home - this is in spite of the fact that he has made numerous claims over the years when he has been out of work all from the original jobcentre.

 

any advice would be appreciated

 

thanks

 

TB

[NorthernMonk]

The TAM ( treat as made ) date is the day he contacted the call centre. His original appointment will be on LMS even if it has been cancelled, there 'should' be a note in converstations as well. The decision on the backdated claim is made at the Benefits Centre, not the Jobcentre. If he still has the letter with the original date, ask for it to be photocopied and sent to the Benefits Centre with his claim. I really don't see why it should be a problem!

As for where he signs, he can choose to sign at any Jobcentre he wants, again it shouldn't be a problem, it just needs the claim transferring.

[ErikaPNP]

The relevant legislation is the Claims and Payments regulations 1987, as amended. (there are so many amendments to these regulations!).

 

Basically the date of claim for telephone claims is determined in the same way as if the claim was made in writing.

 

Para 02093 DMG Chapter 2 - Claims also states this.

 

In a nutshell, providing that all of the relevant information was provided on the date that he called the contact centre, this will be his date of claim. If there was anything that he wasn't able to provide at that date, he has one month in which to provide it (he would have been advised at the time if this was the case) for that date still to be accepted as his date of claim.

[privatehudson]

Hmm.

 

Its rare that anyone is sent an appointment confirmation letter these days as no standard letter exists to do so any more. I would keep the letter however since if he wants to make a case for backdating the claim it will be evidence to show that he had been in contact beforehand.

 

On that subject as far as I know Northern Monk is right, the jobcentre staff do not have the right to tell anyone that they cannot backdate a claim, that's the role of a decision maker who usually works at a Benefit Delivery Centre. Even if the JC staff feel the reasons for backdating are spurious they are not supposed to override the request as that is not within their job role. I would ask for them to provide him with the relevant form (JSA5) so that he can put in the request.

 

Now about the cancelled/rebooked/missing appointment (WFI). If he went through the whole claim with an advisor over the phone the system used to record his answers will also record an initial date of contact (IDOC) which should correspond to the date he started the process. Even if he had to call back at some point this would remain, unless as Erika says he waited more than 30 days in which case he'd have to do another claim. If at any point after he's completed the series of questions someone withdraws the claim it will require them to put an explanatory note as to why, and this pulls through onto the system used to book appointments.

 

With regards to the appointment on Monday if it was booked at any point at all - even if it was withdrawn straight after - a record of it remains on his system. So even if it wasn't outstanding by the time he turned up it wouldn't have taken too much effort for someone at the jobcentre to check if one had ever been booked for that day and time.

 

What they said about taking the claim from the day he arrived doesn't seem right however, and if they insist I'd appeal against the decision. There are things like waiting days but there's no reason in what you've mentioned that these should start now rather than when he did the call.

 

Out of interest do you know when he did the claim and what route (phone, internet etc) he used?

Edited July 22, 2010 by privatehudson