No Idea What To Do

[OldUserNewName]

I was signed off JSA for taking my third period of sickness in a twelve month period at the start of December.

I was advised to make a rapid reclaim which I did, had my appointment on December 12th.

 

I rang on December 22nd to see if anything had happened with processing my reclaim

only to be told by someone on the phone that my original claim had only been shut down in one way

and she needed to close the other part. I agreed to this.

 

I managed to get through Christmas and New Year on no money at all,

was told no financial help for my fuel costs as I pay by direct debit and therefore will not be cut off if I do not pay.

It made no difference that I owe my energy company £880 for previous bills

and they have threatened me with pre-payment meters if I do not start to make regular payments.

Also was told I did not qualify for any emergency payments or even food bank voucher.

 

Today I recieved several letters,

one from the council saying my Housing Benefit had been suspended,

it seems this hadn't been done when they originally closed my claim

and must have been done when the other part of my original claim was closed.

 

 

I rang the council to be told I could not declare nil income as they had no idea what was going

and they didn't know what dates I needed to declare from due to what I was told by the DWP regarding one of the letters I recieved from them.

 

I also recieved 3 letters from the DWP,

one was my P45.

One was saying that they had stopped the deductions from my JSA to pay the council my council tax.

 

The third is the one that confused me the most.

It stated that they could pay me JSA from August 15th 2009 but on December 17th 2014

they would no longer be paying me JSA as I was either working more than 16 hours a week

or I had asked them to stop my JSA.

I had done neither thing.

 

I rang the number on the letter and they could not understand what was going on,

my original claim is closed and they have no record of a rapid reclaim.

 

 

I was told I would have to make yet another rapid reclaim but no backdating would occur.

I was also made aware that it could be March before any money is received as from January 1st

any new claims will be under Universal Credit and not JSA.

 

I was due to sign on tomorrow, an appointment made for me at my rapid reclaim,

no idea if I should go just in case the people on the phone have made a mistake.

 

Feel totally at a loss as to what to do.

 

 

Can anyone give me any advice?

 

 

Both the council and the DWP didn't seem to care

and they expect me to know what to do

and how to sort things out when I have no idea.

 

Thanks in advance

[id6052]

I assume you are a single person with no disabilities or children.

 

If you are living in a Universal Credit area and have had a break in JSA, you will be advised that you need to make a claim for Universal Credit.

 

Have you made a claim for Universal Credit yet?

 

As Universal Credit includes an element for Housing Costs, you will no longer be eligible for Housing Benefit.

[caro]

Definitely go tomorrow as you may be able to sort it, and if you miss it could have further problems.

[OldUserNewName]

Yes I am single.

 

When I made my rapid reclaim it was for JSA in December which I am told they now have no record of.

 

Been told that a new rapid reclaim will be under Universal Credit and will only count from when I make it. If my original rapid reclaim is still somewhere then surely it would complicate it further by making a new one?

 

I was trying to sort housing benefit as not recieved any since end of November, have no income and wanted to make sure I still have a roof over my head but told I can't as they can not figure out the dates.

 

I assume you are a single person with no disabilities or children.

 

If you are living in a Universal Credit area and have had a break in JSA, you will be advised that you need to make a claim for Universal Credit.

 

Have you made a claim for Universal Credit yet?

 

As Universal Credit includes an element for Housing Costs, you will no longer be eligible for Housing Benefit.

[OldUserNewName]

That is what I was thinking, all they can do is turn me away if the appointment is no longer there

 

Definitely go tomorrow as you may be able to sort it, and if you miss it could have further problems.

[estellyn]

Have you spoken to a decision maker? The rapid reclaim could well be sitting on a desk. Call and ask for a call back from a decision maker.

[OldUserNewName]

Just spoken to someone again at one of the contact centres using the number on the letter.

 

This time had someone much more helpful. They could see what had happened, when whoever it was went in to close to original claim they not only closed that claim but my claim as a whole including the rapid reclaim.

 

They themselves it was a mess and they had no idea why that had been done. The person on the phone did apologise and said I had done nothing wrong, they could see I had attended my reclaim appointment and even the time I was due to sign today, which they confirmed had been cancelled when the claim was closed down completely.

 

I am now waiting for a call back from the jobcentre to see if there is anything they can do, I was told there is a chance they might be able to do something that means I won't need to make a completely new claim.

 

Apart from wait is there anything I can do?

 

Thanks

[OldUserNewName]

So I recieved no callback today. Will have to ring again in the morning.

 

Is there anything I can do at all to speed things up?

 

Checked my bank account and I have £1.52 to last me until god knows when.

 

Thanks

[neword]

Normally callbacks have a time span of 5 working days. If you phone and query it and then request a callback again

you have to wait upto 5 working days again. So just remember not to request another callback or the wait time

for the callback goes back to 5 working days.

 

I got caught by this the will call back but did not get it so rang them and requested another. Could have been

requesting for a lifetime and never got the callback.

 

Also I have had callbacks that took longer than 5 days.