Decision make this!!

[Canal Rat]

I'd have to be on my knees eating grass before I would even consider signing on. I had a stretch in 2007.

 

Never again

[simon&jan]

The wife has been out of work for 18months now, would never sign on , IMO the only ones that scrounge off my hard earned cash are the people in westminster !

[FORTUNATA]

That's what they hope for, to make the process very unpleasant. If you can find alternatives all well and good. However, I've worked out a survival system that can possibly help anyone who's really struggling yet fears handouts are too much of a nightmare to contemplate.

The legal reality is when you claim JSA you agree to actively seek work. I don't have a problem with that. I'd rather earn my own wages than go cap in hand, which can be degrading. However, if you are activley seeking work but not getting replies a handout is your right so as to pay the bills while seeking a job.

The basic area of contention is the Government seeks to somehow make a case the jobseeker isn't genuinely seeking work so the contract drawn up between the job center and job seeker sets out various courses of action (the so-called hoops). However, legally all it boils down to is you need to prove you are genuinely seeking work and if you can do that (by making careful records), you're legally covered. In most cases that means applying for, say, 5 jobs a week and making damned sure you keep letters filed and so on. The red tape is neither here nor there and seems to be designed to confuse. The nitty gritty is they can't stop your money if you can prove you were actively seeking employment. Yes, they do try it on but a number of people have won case (and compensation) against job centres.

Personally I think it's wrong so many people go to jobcentres not understanding what's going on and unaware of their rights. This excuse for a Government we currently have (and the last one) has actually signed all sorts of citzen rights agreements they hope people won't get clued up on.

Thus, if you're seriously looking for work, get what you're entitled to and don't be put off. Of course if you have enough money put by then, yes, sometimes it's not worth the hassle to claim.

 

I'd have to be on my knees eating grass before I would even consider signing on. I had a stretch in 2007.

 

Never again

[FORTUNATA]

"The dole WILL make you jump through hoops - a friend of mine was asked to provide 2 years worth of payslips because she didn't work the same hours every week."

 

Then she would have been claiming contribution based JSA. They wanted the payslips to try and find out if she had enough national insurance contributions to qualify for contribution based JSA. Otherwise she'd be on income based. Here is the distinction:

(1) Contribution based JSA = six months payment and no need to supply any proof of savings or declare bank statements.

(1) Income based JSA = jobseekers payment based on notion you have little support in way of savings or income of any kind. Limit is 6,500 prior to deductions.

 

Most redundant people should get contribution based JSA and if he (or she) applies honestly for some 3 jobs per week minimum there should be no major pressure. The problem only arises after you've been on a year and then they try to pressure people.

 

Back to the original post.

 

The dole WILL make you jump through hoops - a friend of mine was asked to provide 2 years worth of payslips because she didn't work the same hours every week.

 

The dole WILL make you look for work EVEN if you have a firm job offer.

 

The dole WILL not treat you like a human being (sure the people you have meetings with will, but the organisation won't)YOU are a number and they don't want you signing on.

 

Just be thankful they haven't asked you to go to job club or back to work or A4E yet - same muppets all about numbers, oh but they psycho-analyse you too - oh and you'll realise why you haven't been able to get a job yet - because A4E and similar get first bite of the cherry with certain jobs!

[Higgs]

I didn't whinge, paying the years of continuous tax. I won't whinge now I'm collecting some benefit.

 

The government like the good stuff (taxes), they can jolly well lump it, if they're needed to pay some back. I can't stand fairweather 'friends'.

[FORTUNATA]

I understand how people feel. I signed on the first 6 months but felt after that the best way to get out of a rut of dependency would be to cut free. I had well over a year off and it was a real feeling of freedom. I applied for jobs a lot but really got nowhere which surprised me.

My view is it's the politicians who created a lot of this mess and when you're registered as genuinely unemployed that puts pressure back on the Government. If people don't register they can claim, of course, they're reducing the figures.

My advice is if things are really tight, bite the bullet and make a temporary claim and genuinely seek work in the process or go self employed.

 

I didn't whinge, paying the years of continuous tax. I won't whinge now I'm collecting some benefit.

 

The government like the good stuff (taxes), they can jolly well lump it, if they're needed to pay some back. I can't stand fairweather 'friends'.

[Higgs]

 

My advice is if things are really tight, bite the bullet and make a temporary claim and genuinely seek work in the process or go self employed.

 

I have not been averse to doing work that is not my usual work. Narrowboat painting was such a move. I have also taken courses in electronics and have a City&Guilds from the last spell on the dole. I found the boat painting and they allowed me a day off to sit the City&Guilds

 

The situation now is that I am going for the self-employment road. I need a piece of equipment and don't have the money and don't want to borrow. It means doing without it for a while or finding a job to make the money to buy it.

 

I'm trying to balance the money now to avoid jumping into the frying pan.

 

But, I still feel no negative stigma through being on benefit.

[Chertsey]

Reading your post I'm slightly confused. You say that the Job Centre has sanctioned your dole money, but then you suggest that you haven't been allowed it. To me, if you sanction siomething you allow or authorise it. Do you mean that there will bve a week's delay in paying it? From memory (it is some years since I was on the dole) this is quite normal.

The government take a Red Queen attitude to this sort of thing and obviously for them words mean them opposite of what they do for the rest of us. Think sanctions as in South Africa.

 

Signing on obviously wouldn't be any good for me - it takes me three days to complete one decent job application (and another three at least to prepare for the interview, when I get one). It's far worse that it was last time I was in the market five or six years ago - then most people wanted a CV and it didn't take long to tweak it for each post. Now everyone has a different, complicated, online form. You can cut and paste to some extent (except for one which deliberately made it impossible) but usually its simpler just to rewrite everything.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Chertsey

[Athy]

The government take a Red Queen attitude to this sort of thing and obviously for them words mean them opposite of what they do for the rest of us. Think sanctions as in South Africa.

Thanks, Cherts - I think I mentioned something similar (referring to Zimbabwe/ Rhodesia) in a subsequent post.

 

Isn't it the George MEDAL, not the GC, which is for civvies only?

[nbfiresprite]

Thanks, Cherts - I think I mentioned something similar (referring to Zimbabwe/ Rhodesia) in a subsequent post.

 

Isn't it the George MEDAL, not the GC, which is for civvies only?

 

The George Medal (GM) is the second highest civilian award for gallantry, ranking below the George Cross.

It may be awarded to members of the armed forces, irrespective of rank, for acts of gallantry other than in

action with the enemy (for example, bomb disposal).

 

Firesprite

 

In the office

[FORTUNATA]

It may be worth skipping the long winded applications. I had one which was plain ridiculous. I spent ages filling it in and then had to answer some very badly worded profile questions which to me weren't logical.

Funnily enough, I have have just had some interest from a teaching vacancy I applied for on spec. That is, I just wrote in and asked. They said they could maybe interview me but, at the same time, the fact I'm getting a response helps support my JSA claim that I'm genuinely seeking work and not just sponging. So, consider a claim when you're really having a good go at finding work and you'll be in a better position.

These days I've become quite supportive of friends I have who are a lot younger. There is one girl who's employed and sometimes complains she has no free time. I tell her to bite the bullet and keep going and save as much as she can while she can. Sometimes you feel sorry for the younger peopleas in my day you could get well paid factory work painting figures and stuff.

 

The government take a Red Queen attitude to this sort of thing and obviously for them words mean them opposite of what they do for the rest of us. Think sanctions as in South Africa.

 

Signing on obviously wouldn't be any good for me - it takes me three days to complete one decent job application (and another three at least to prepare for the interview, when I get one). It's far worse that it was last time I was in the market five or six years ago - then most people wanted a CV and it didn't take long to tweak it for each post. Now everyone has a different, complicated, online form. You can cut and paste to some extent (except for one which deliberately made it impossible) but usually its simpler just to rewrite everything.

[Smelly]

Limit is 6,500 prior to deductions.

 

 

The lower capital threshold for claimants under state pension age and not in residential care is £6000 after which £1 income is assumed for every £250 or part thereof. The upper threshold is £16k when payment stops completely.

 

There is no upper capital threshold for peole past their state pension age for now; the 16k threshold is likely to be imposed in April or October 2012.

 

It's a good time for a speculative Pension Credit claim if you're over SPA.

 

BTW JCP will only ask you to establish your NI contributions if your employer has not paid them, there is a contemporary record of paid Cat A contributions which is presumed accurate (because it is) back to 1997. A fire destroyed a lot of the old cards in '97 but that's immaterial to the vast majority of the populace.

Edited May 7, 2012 by Smelly

[petalponk]

"The dole WILL make you jump through hoops - a friend of mine was asked to provide 2 years worth of payslips because she didn't work the same hours every week."

 

Then she would have been claiming contribution based JSA. They wanted the payslips to try and find out if she had enough national insurance contributions to qualify for contribution based JSA. Otherwise she'd be on income based. Here is the distinction:

(1) Contribution based JSA = six months payment and no need to supply any proof of savings or declare bank statements.

(1) Income based JSA = jobseekers payment based on notion you have little support in way of savings or income of any kind. Limit is 6,500 prior to deductions.

 

Most redundant people should get contribution based JSA and if he (or she) applies honestly for some 3 jobs per week minimum there should be no major pressure. The problem only arises after you've been on a year and then they try to pressure people.

 

 

Oh yes i can understand that, the point being she was working full time (ie at least 38 hrs a week) during all that time for the same employer, so her NI wasn't in doubt, after telling them that she didn't have every single last payslip, they said "well send us your last 2 years bank statements and we will work out what hours you worked from the pay you got"?! She did send copies - heavily black marker penned out so all they could see was the wages going in. They then took another 4 weeks to do whatever they where doing with them, She finally got paid her JSA nearly 3 months after 1st claiming it, she's back in work now and is so much happier for it.

 

I personally work in a job i don't like that is really not enough hours 22.5 a week and is minimum wage, and i'm probably not really earning much more than being on the dole, but i'd still much prefer to do it than have to sign on!