jobseekers are about to make us homeless

[paulie22]

after 8 weeks of jsa mistakes we are finally being evicted with no money in our pockets, my pregnant wife is coming along for the ride.

 

we ar owed 2000 pounds in back payed benifits , the only reason we are in this position is due to mistakes from jsa people.

 

they keep telling us they are so sorry and will rectify the issue, but they just dont do it.

 

we are totally screwed

 

oh well rant over i guess

[Nystagmite]

Are you getting any legal advice about this?

[paulie22]

no i cant afford any legal advice, or food at present. its getting a little late in the day for what ifs also.

[bluedogx]

CAB? Did it go to court? Council or private let?

[paulie22]

no cab, did what go to court? private let

[Life-Goes-On]

To evict they need a court order.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

you are going to have to give a bit more back ground about your JSA claim, why wasnt the claim processed did you give them everything they asked for.

 

Another question when is the baby due?

[paulie22]

im not being evicted just cant pay the rent, so i have to leave. were allready a month in arrears so i cant stay here any longer. not sure whats going to happen to our possesions. lol oh well its only stuff i guess

[antone]

Seriously, give us more information about what's happening and we'll help you. Why haven't JSA paid you what you're due? Mistakes happen, even bad ones at times, but you can't simply accept "so sad, too bad" as a response.

[paulie22]

hi

 

we had a joint claim, first problem occured when the claim was stopped due to my death, the next mistake was there failure to log our signing on to there computer ,then rebuilt our benifits using contribution instead of income based, since then the claim is shut down , and our housing benifit and c tax also.

 

there really nice about it in the job centre and allways apologise for there mistakes, they seem v embarased

 

10 weeks to baby day :0)

 

they say we will sort it but then dont do anything to help us

 

im so sad for my wife as the stress is affecting here badly, i feel ive let her down

[Nystagmite]

hi

 

we had a joint claim, first problem occured when the claim was stopped due to my death

 

What do you mean "the claim was stopped due to my death"?

[bluedogx]

Don't give up! You can't be evicted without a court order. The back dating of your benefit will pay the rent arrears. You need advice - and fast. CAB, shelter, welfare rights. You also need to keep on at the benefit office. For your wife's sake. If not yours.

If you leave voluntarily you might be seen as intentionally homeless by the council homeless dept.

[paulie22]

they had made a mistake on my info and shut down my claim due to my death, as in i had died so they stopped my claim. they actually told my wife that i was dead over the phone. charming, i wasnt home at the time and she thought there had been a acident or something.

 

quite insulting really

[paulie22]

im trying to stay positive but i keep swinging between deeply depressed and upbeat. i am undergoing treatment at present and i am quite uncomfortable so it can change my mood quite easily.

 

but i promise i will keep fighting for my wifes sake fi not mine

[bluedogx]

Good. Visit your nearest advice agency first thing Monday and let us know what happens.

 

Keep fighting x

[MIKEY DABODEE]

This will not solve your problem with your JSA claim, but you are entitled to claim I.S your wife is with in eleven weeks of giving birth she can claim for you.. She can ring Monday make a claim to I.S with you as her partner, a joint claim... You can claim for fifteen weeks after the baby is born... Housing benefit will wait untill the claim is processed...

 

If what you are saying is correct about your JSA claim and they told your wife that you were dead, then you need to enlist the help of your MP and make a complaint asap...

I have never heard anything like that its attrocious...

[paulie22]

is it possible to phone the cab and not visit them as i cant leave the house due to treatment for 10% p.u.v.a burns and im struggling to walk right now.

 

i guess they will need me to see them in person with all the letters and things

i will wait until i can walk out and see the cab ,should be a lot better in a week or so.

 

thanks for your help, it good to just talk it through and stop it whirling around in my head so much

[MIKEY DABODEE]

claim I.S from Monday at least you will have benfit you are entitled, you only have to phone the contact centre

[flumps1976]

Part of my Job Role is close claims at the JCP office, I can assure you that "your death" was not entered at a JCP office, it can only be entered by the BC or the bereavements processors based in the pensions offices. (Hold my hand up to being guilty of mis-keying some information but there is always a warning message that alerts the processor to the fact that the claim is going to close because of the found work/failure to sign/gone abroad etc and it will never accept death at a JCP office)

Failure to enter your signing date could be one of a couple of reasons, the claim wasn't processed or even had claim interest registered on the computed making it impossible to enter the appropriate information, or it could have been genuinely missed.

On what grounds what the claim closed down? You should have received a letter detailing the reasons.

Fist thing on Monday morning you need to either call the BC from home or access the custoomer phones at the JCP to enquire exactly what is happening, if you are not happy with the explanation then you ask to speak to a supervisor. If they can't/won't then request a Customer Service Appointment at the JCP for asap to be able to get an explanation from the customer service adviser. As all processing is dealt with at the BC it is likely that the person you see will have to call the JSA team to discuss asnd get the information to establish exactly what is required to get your claim up and running.

Unfortunately there are some cases that will encounter problem after problem and it sounds as though yours is one of those cases. Yes the staff you see will be genuinely apologetic, I know I would be despite the fact that it isn't an error made by me.

As your wife is now with 11 weeks of your babies due date she could also make a claim for Income Support which I would recommend doing on Monday morning.

[antone]

Heck yes, they'd seem embarrassed if they'd closed a claim due to someone's death under those circumstances. I used to work for JCP in a processing centre, and I saw something like this happen at least once: a piece of mail landed on my desk saying something like "Mr J Smith has presented himself at this Jobcentre and assures us he is not dead - he has the paperwork to prove it." I'm only slightly exagerrating here.

 

First point is that the Jobcentre staff don't actually process the claim or issue payment, so while they may be embarassed and sympathetic, they can't necessarily get much done. This mistake presumably happened at the Benefit Delivery Centre, and they're the ones who need to sort it.

 

There are things you can do. Harass the BDC staff over the phone. Contact your MP, or at the very least, the CAB. I strongly urge you: do not walk away from this. Others are better placed to advise on the specifics of how to approach this, I suspect, but I would be on the phone to the BDC on a daily basis and very likely involving outside help. You do not need to become homeless because of bureacractic error.

[paulie22]

we wre told to hold off on the claim for i.s due to the back dated claim that was going to be corrected for us, that was three weeks ago and we have not heard form them, except to have our sure start rejected today, a letter from ireland telling us we had no active claim for jsa etc

[paulie22]

thanks... what is BDC?

[antone]

thanks... what is BDC?

 

A BDC is a Benefit Delivery Centre. These are larger offices with a few hundred staff usually, and they actually pay the claims. Your Jobcentre will be "attached" to a BDC, where the processing is handled. From what you've said, it's here that the problem has arisen. Their contact details should be on any letter they've sent you.

 

Incidentally, you mentioned an office in Ireland. There is a Belfast BDC, but it covers only a small area of London. But one thing that does confuse people is that most letters from the Jobcentre have an "If undelivered..." address in that city printed on the envelope. Please don't write to that address; it's just a dead letter office and there's no-one there who can help.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

usually when a death of a customer is notified to a BDC the date of death is notified in a PD dialogue, as not verified if notified by a family member etc its only input as verified if a BD8 is supplied that the form given at the registers office when the death is registered... I have never seen a claim been shut down with out this form...

Anyway when the claim is closed due to a death a final award letter DOES NOT go out, the claim is closed with exclusion reason code 18 thats a general code to close a claim...

 

PD may have been updated by mistake and the call centre staff give out what they saw on the note pad,, But if the OPs partner had rung the BDC to enquire about the claim then they would have needed his permission to speak to her about the claim first.. So I dont know how this has happended..

 

 

But if it has a complaint is needed

[paulie22]

fiona was called by chipenham office (BDC office i presume) they asked my wife if i was dead,as the claim was suspended , at least thats the way my wife worded it.

 

its so confusing claiming jsa,