A friend of mine has been trying to claim JSA for a while, the trouble has been since he's started college. He was claiming JSA (no other benefits) and looking for work but not getting anywhere on the job front so decided to apply for a course at college. The course was a one year, access to higher education course that was fully funded due to being on JSA. It was his intention to do this course and eventually go to uni and become a social worker.
When the course started in Sept, the JSA stopped as they said he was no long eligible. In December he got a phonecall from a work placement company to see how he was getting on and said due to the hours on the course he should be eligible for JSA and to go back to the job centre and continue to looking for work.
In January his claim was going through the appeal process so he started to sign on every week whilst waiting to hear back from the decision. In Feb he had enough points to get into uni so dropped some hours in college and started to go in 14hours a week whilst still looking for work. Seeing as he had not heard back from the job centre he went back to them telling them about the reduced hours and his willingness to reduce them further or even finish the course early if necessary to get a job.
On 21st March he received a text from the job centre saying that they have looked into the disallowance on his claim and a new decision has been made and he is no longer disallowed. They followed up with a letter on 23rd March saying that they are backdating his claim from the 26th Feb and will now start to get £56.25 a week (going upto £56.80 a week in April). He received this money.
On 28th March received a letter saying "We recently wrote to tell you that there was a doubt on whether your statement of availability, in your proposed JS agreement was reasonable and it has been decided that your proposed statement dated 13.03.13 is not reasonable." And should be revised as follows: to look for work, to be willing to start immediately, to be available to work 00.00-23:59 Monday to Sunday for a minimum of 8hrs a day, to accept national minimum wage, to look for work within 90mins travel time.
At the time this letter made no sense as that is what he already agreed on so it was ignored as a mistake. Went to sign on today and the woman at the job centre said his claim has been suspended due to being a full time student and he would have to go through an appeal.
He explained to her he had already been through appeal and it was fine and showed her all his letters explaining. But she said he would get no further money, his claim has been suspended and he has to go through appeal...
Now he doesn't know whether he's coming or going. Scraped, borrowed, money from friends and relatives. Lived rent-free in a friends house temporarily. Really wants to get on his feet but keeps getting knocked back. He has no money at all and is starting to feel bad owing all his friends/family so much.
Is he entitled to anything at all? Or just needs to hang in there until either a job comes along or uni starts in Sept/Oct??
When the course started in Sept, the JSA stopped as they said he was no long eligible. In December he got a phonecall from a work placement company to see how he was getting on and said due to the hours on the course he should be eligible for JSA and to go back to the job centre and continue to looking for work.
In January his claim was going through the appeal process so he started to sign on every week whilst waiting to hear back from the decision. In Feb he had enough points to get into uni so dropped some hours in college and started to go in 14hours a week whilst still looking for work. Seeing as he had not heard back from the job centre he went back to them telling them about the reduced hours and his willingness to reduce them further or even finish the course early if necessary to get a job.
On 21st March he received a text from the job centre saying that they have looked into the disallowance on his claim and a new decision has been made and he is no longer disallowed. They followed up with a letter on 23rd March saying that they are backdating his claim from the 26th Feb and will now start to get £56.25 a week (going upto £56.80 a week in April). He received this money.
On 28th March received a letter saying "We recently wrote to tell you that there was a doubt on whether your statement of availability, in your proposed JS agreement was reasonable and it has been decided that your proposed statement dated 13.03.13 is not reasonable." And should be revised as follows: to look for work, to be willing to start immediately, to be available to work 00.00-23:59 Monday to Sunday for a minimum of 8hrs a day, to accept national minimum wage, to look for work within 90mins travel time.
At the time this letter made no sense as that is what he already agreed on so it was ignored as a mistake. Went to sign on today and the woman at the job centre said his claim has been suspended due to being a full time student and he would have to go through an appeal.
He explained to her he had already been through appeal and it was fine and showed her all his letters explaining. But she said he would get no further money, his claim has been suspended and he has to go through appeal...
Now he doesn't know whether he's coming or going. Scraped, borrowed, money from friends and relatives. Lived rent-free in a friends house temporarily. Really wants to get on his feet but keeps getting knocked back. He has no money at all and is starting to feel bad owing all his friends/family so much.
Is he entitled to anything at all? Or just needs to hang in there until either a job comes along or uni starts in Sept/Oct??