Me and My Various Benefit Claims and issues

[dennissmith]

Thanks for the replies again. Appointment wasn't as bad as expected - wasn't referred straight away to the CWP anyhow. But a decision will be made for me within 2 weeks from now on whether I'll be doing that or daily signing. For now nothing major just a CV booster session.

[Tj rodgers]

I wonder what happens if you have done the 2 years work programme then find say a temp job or perm job then for sum reason end up back on Jsa how long would the period of time have to be before the 2nd period can be treated as a brand new claim? Anybody know?

[Jmulv]

Hi guys,

 

Wondered if anyone has any info on this. I was offered door work last year through a friend but I lacked an SIA and I asked Ingeus about training for an SIA and they never got back to me.

 

Fast forward to recently, well I've been offered work by my friend again this year but again I lack an SIA. However another guy who was on a course with me told me the job centre paid for his SIA (Or helped him fund it can't remember).

 

Does anyone have any info about this?

 

It's pretty much guaranteed work for me if I could get hold of a licence.

[Mr.P]

If you are still attached to Ingeus then they are responsible for funding any training - In such situations, if you approached the JCP, they would refer you back to Ingeus.

 

If you have completed your two year sentence and have not been placed on any other "scheme", then the JCP may be able to help either by way of the Discretionary Social Fund or from another pot of cash.

 

Out of a matter of interest, how much does this SIA course/licence cost ?

[dernawi]

Hi guys,

 

Wondered if anyone has any info on this. I was offered door work last year through a friend but I lacked an SIA and I asked Ingeus about training for an SIA and they never got back to me.

 

Fast forward to recently, well I've been offered work by my friend again this year but again I lack an SIA. However another guy who was on a course with me told me the job centre paid for his SIA (Or helped him fund it can't remember).

 

Does anyone have any info about this?

 

It's pretty much guaranteed work for me if I could get hold of a licence.

 

if you are under 25 and unemployed you can get a grant from princes trust it's called development award. one of the things the grant can pay for is the sia licence.

[Jmulv]

If you are still attached to Ingeus then they are responsible for funding any training - In such situations, if you approached the JCP, they would refer you back to Ingeus.

 

If you have completed your two year sentence and have not been placed on any other "scheme", then the JCP may be able to help either by way of the Discretionary Social Fund or from another pot of cash.

 

Out of a matter of interest, how much does this SIA course/licence cost ?

 

Around 350.

 

Even if the DWP helped me to fund it with a portion that would probably be workable.

 

It's pretty much guaranteed i'll find work, and to be honest the job centre have sent me on so many pointless health and safety courses etc (Which have not helped) that probably have costed more than just helping me fund an SIA....

[biggeorge]

Sorry to give you bad news but you will find no one wants to help fund the SIA.

I have been trying to get the DWP and Ingeus to fund the licence for the past 4/5 years.

 

Explained numerous times that I would be in full time work within a week of gaining the licence, No good.

 

Your only salvation could be if your friend could write a letter explaining you have a position as soon as you

get your licence. DWP wanted a letter from an employer from me offering me job then and only then would

they look into possibly help in some funding for it.

 

My problem was that no Security company would even look at your CV if you didn't currently have an SIA so as

you can guess I got zero interviews and zero chances of getting a letter of anyone.

 

Get a letter from your friend and good luck with the DWP.

 

George

[Jmulv]

Sorry to give you bad news but you will find no one wants to help fund the SIA.

I have been trying to get the DWP and Ingeus to fund the licence for the past 4/5 years.

 

Explained numerous times that I would be in full time work within a week of gaining the licence, No good.

 

Your only salvation could be if your friend could write a letter explaining you have a position as soon as you

get your licence. DWP wanted a letter from an employer from me offering me job then and only then would

they look into possibly help in some funding for it.

 

My problem was that no Security company would even look at your CV if you didn't currently have an SIA so as

you can guess I got zero interviews and zero chances of getting a letter of anyone.

 

Get a letter from your friend and good luck with the DWP.

 

George

 

Interesting,

 

I should have asked this guy more questions but he said yeah JSA completely funded it for him and he was soon to start looking for security work when it comes through.

[Jmulv]

bump for anyone else to input

[Jmulv]

Does anyone have any idea what other schemes are upcomming that the job centre can place you on.... I did a stint of MWA (Mandatory work activity) it wasn't so bad but didn't do anything to actually help me. Of course I just did it because I was told to. But I was wondering what other things I could potentially face?

 

I've heard stories that there is now a supervised job search course that lasts 12 weeks. Apparently it's diabolical a guy say he went on it. He said he sat there pretty much the whole 8 hours just staring at a screen for 12 weeks because there were only so many vacancies he could apply for.

 

Then there is the community work activity (Not sure of the name anyone correct me?) which is basically like mandatory work activity but lasts for 6 months full time!

 

Obviously you are only at risk of being sent on this I assume if you are not applying for enough jobs / being active. But then again I feel like a lot of the time they dish out these courses as punishment more than anything.

 

Does anyone have any idea what's on the horizon?

 

I wonder what happens if you have done the 2 years work programme then find say a temp job or perm job then for sum reason end up back on Jsa how long would the period of time have to be before the 2nd period can be treated as a brand new claim? Anybody know?

 

My advisor said 3 months once if I recall, but i've also heard 6 months being thrown around.

[Chester6]

I think the terrible options were between forced labour or patronising meaningless jobsearch and I think you are safe as you did the forced labour

[Guest Another Spartacus]

My son is doing a SIA course at college and because he is on income support he doesn't have to pay for the course fee. He will have to pay for his licence though I would assume.

[jasta11]

I don't think even the JC know what schemes are coming next - any questions I ask are usually met with 'well we know there's something coming up but we haven't been told about it yet'. Very helpful - not.

 

I'm pretty sick of the DWP and JC and I'm in my 50's; I can only imagine how much worse it is for the young 'uns who are targetted more for pointless exercises and slave labour.

[Chester6]

I don't bother asking

I don't feel any interest in knowing

It tends to be a race to the bottom as each new scheme makes the previous one look good

WP is better then PWPS and CWP, FND is better then WP

[Tj rodgers]

I don't bother asking

I don't feel any interest in knowing

It tends to be a race to the bottom as each new scheme makes the previous one look good

WP is better then PWPS and CWP, FND is better then WP

No its always best knowing what you could be facing in the future

[Charlotte_Henderson]

Sorry but ive never heard of sumbody doing 1 year on work programme then go to university for a year then when you go back to the jobcentre they send you strate to work programme even though you havent signed on for 12 months ? Im not sure thats right i would have thought you would have been treated as a complete new claim - Does Anybody know what period of time you have to off Jsa before if for some reason you have to claim jsa again that you go as a fresh new claim?

 

I thought you were a totally new claim, if you had signed off for 3 months...or this is what we were told.

[Mr.P]

Under the current "scheme", once you are attached to a WP provider, you are in their clutches for 104 weeks. If, after say nine months, you find a job that ends up lasting six months, you have to return to the WP provider for the remaining three months. This is despite the fact that your new claim for JSA is not linked to the previous one - This also opens up another question: As the two claims are not linked, do you then "qualify" for CWP after finishing your WP sentence ?

[jasta11]

Under the current "scheme", once you are attached to a WP provider, you are in their clutches for 104 weeks. If, after say nine months, you find a job that ends up lasting six months, you have to return to the WP provider for the remaining three months. This is despite the fact that your new claim for JSA is not linked to the previous one - This also opens up another question: As the two claims are not linked, do you then "qualify" for CWP after finishing your WP sentence ?

 

Depends how urgently the DWP need to fiddle the unemployment/training statistics.. *he said cynically*

[tfp]

So people are now being placed in an overcrowded room doing (choice of expletive) all! Yet again!

 

 

Funny how Chris Grayling promised this would not happen. As employment minister he said "We will not have people stuck in a room for 30hrs a week doing nothing". Of course, Graylings words mean nothing now as Justice Secretary and meant nothing in his previous role. His successor Esther McVey is even more incompetent.

 

 

Sticking people in a room 'job searching' as well as yet more MWA is a clear admission of the WP's utter failure. And yet it provides yet more £££'s for the dodgy W2W sector as it adds yet another method of fleecing the taxpayer.

[neword]

People in rooms.. tell me about it.

 

Was with a provider called Juniper.. 25+ people were shoe horned into a 15ft x 13ft which had very

little ventilation (small window), a single door, always closed and a radiator that was hot even

during the summer months, the average temperature in that room 26+degrees.

 

We had to sit around some desks and the person running the group would bring up all the

current jobs he thought were applicable to the majority of the group and then project

them on to a screen and read yes thats right he would read each and everyone of them to us..

 

The next day was exactly the same...... and so on... and so on.

 

I eventually escaped having served my time there and I found out a few weeks that Juniper had

lost the contract and had been shut down. Did I say Hurray out load... yep very load.

 

Eventually I was sent to another provider called i2i (inspire 2 independence) which my advisor

at the JC told me had a good reputation.. So I thought i was in with a chance.....

 

Turned out that as Juniper had shut down i2i came into existence and yes 90% of the Juniper

staff were working for i2i... it was no different than Juniper had been.

 

As for PWP support ... whats that?

[RebeccaPidgeon]

So people are now being placed in an overcrowded room doing (choice of expletive) all! Yet again!

 

 

Funny how Chris Grayling promised this would not happen. As employment minister he said "We will not have people stuck in a room for 30hrs a week doing nothing". Of course, Graylings words mean nothing now as Justice Secretary and meant nothing in his previous role. His successor Esther McVey is even more incompetent.

 

 

Sticking people in a room 'job searching' as well as yet more MWA is a clear admission of the WP's utter failure. And yet it provides yet more £££'s for the dodgy W2W sector as it adds yet another method of fleecing the taxpayer.

What makes you think that TV Autocue Reader Esther McVey was ever qualified to do anything other than read the autocue...and it is doubtful whether, in the absense of a number of photoshopped photographs, whether she would have even made an interview on the Casting Couch.

[tfp]

Oh, believe me, I hold Smith, McVey, Freud and Greyling with equal contempt. At least Greyling could string a sentence of lies together. McVey seems incapable of doing even this task. The sad thing is that should McVey lose her seat at the next election, she may get the chance to resurrect her media career and reinvent herself a la Portillo and Widdicombe. God forbid!

[RebeccaPidgeon]

Isn't Esther McVey your MP? Well well well!

 

I thought UC wasn't coming out for at least another 3 years?

Although Universal Credit remains behind schedule, and the Project may never be implemented (watch this space after the next election), the DWP are replacing the Job Seekers Agreement with the Job Seekers Agreement Claimant Commitment (which is covered by the existing legislation), and it may be the case that Ministers may well suggest that Universal Credit has been implemented throughout the UK by January 2015.

[Jmulv]

Hi guys,

 

I' really pleased I've landed a part time job, it's only 9hrs a week at the moment but weekends so I get a bit of bonus pay.

 

It's better than nothing!

 

I want to sign off JSA now it's been way too long. I'll lose a little money each week (I'll be earning near to jsa but not the same amount) but I really don't mind, i'm so glad I have to option to now sign off!

 

I was wondering though, how do I go about dealing with rent benefit? obviously i'll still need to continue claiming that until I get more hours, what do you have to show the council / ask for when you tell them you are in part time work?

 

Do you have to tell them you've signed on JSA and fill in a form or something of hours worked / income?

 

Thankyou all!

[Mr.P]

Go down to your LA office and ask for the forms required to claim HB/CTR - They will want proof of savings, stocks & shares, and wage slips. The last one will be difficult if you have only just started working, but you can still get the forms back to them and supply wage slips when you do get some.

 

If you do overtime, advise the council of this within a reasonable time (many councils will accept four weeks as "reasonable"). Again, they will want pay slips as evidence.

 

As far as the JCP/DWP is concerned, you just need to inform them that you are closing your claim for JSA for personal reasons - If they press the issue, you can either walk away or ask which regulation requires you to provide the information.... Best to inform them in writing, and then they can't ask the question.

 

If you are attached to the WP/CWP, you might get a phone call or two from the provider - You can use the opportunity to tell them where to go without fear of sanction.