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Help! JSA

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I have started to sort out jobseekers allowance for myself.

On the letter i got about my claim, it says that i must provide some proof documents (p45, various letters for proof of student loans, final wage slips from past jobs etc etc) within 1 calendar month, or i may lose benefit.

However, ive just moved up to lincoln 2 weeks ago, didnt realise that i'd bee needing these sorts of things any more, some of them ive even thrown in the bin long ago.

I understand that they need all this in order for me to prove im eligable, but i literally cant provide it until i go to my parents home and trawl through all my papers. Yet i cant afford to live without this JSA.

Will they start paying me without the proof, but then stop and demand the money back if i dont provide it in a month? Or do they mean that i actually wont get *anything* until i show them everything they need to see?

Im just really scared, because i cant afford to travel to my parents home in order to get the stuff, and some of it doesnt even exist any more. Yet if i dont provide it what if they wont pay me the benefits? I cant afford to live without it, i cant pay the rent, i cant afford to buy food. :(

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    contact the inland revenue, they will have records of all your job history and current tax records, they will be able to sort it out :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    icey wrote:
    contact the inland revenue, they will have records of all your job history and current tax records, they will be able to sort it out :thumb:


    All we will do is tell you to ask the employers first, as thats what we have been advised we must say. We may not even hold the details if they are fairly recent (i.e. if we havent been given the details yet)

    Try contacting the employers etc who the documents relate to first and if they can't provide them then phone up the Revenue and explain the urgency and that you have already spoke to the employers.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Cheers for the replies, panic over!! apparantly the letter they sent me was automated and i dont need to provide anything other than my student loan payment schedule. And they will pay me the allowance before i get hold of it, but i need to provide it within one month

    :yippe:

    I do have another query though, they said i will hear about help with housing costs. Do i actually get my rent paid for me? Because £45 per week wont cover my rent let alone food on top of that...

    On the plus side, ive found 3 jobs and am in the process of applying :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think they pay a large amount of the rent for you, but I dont think they pay the entire amount.

    My cousin has to pay something like £12 per week on a flat that would normally be £65 as a rough idea for you.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    JSA wont pay your rent. You need to contact your local council and get a housing benefit form, although sometimes you can get the form from the job centre too, but its not the same office that deal with it. The rent money doesnt come in with your JSA. If you havent got the form already id go to the council and get a form seperatly. itll probably go through quicker that way too.
    Dont forget council tax benefit too.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Char_Baby wrote:
    I think they pay a large amount of the rent for you, but I dont think they pay the entire amount.

    My cousin has to pay something like £12 per week on a flat that would normally be £65 as a rough idea for you.

    thanks for that. Thats round about 20% ish then. Which means i'll need to pay around £10 per week in rent if your correct

    :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    JSA wont pay your rent. You need to contact your local council and get a housing benefit form, although sometimes you can get the form from the job centre too, but its not the same office that deal with it. The rent money doesnt come in with your JSA. If you havent got the form already id go to the council and get a form seperatly. itll probably go through quicker that way too.
    Dont forget council tax benefit too.

    thats a bit confusing then, because in my phone interview thing where they asked for all my info, they wanted to know my landlords details and if i would want rent money going into my account or directly to him.

    this has left me somewhat unsure. Looks like i'll be phoning them up yet again!

    cheers for the reply
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Blah wrote:
    thanks for that. Thats round about 20% ish then. Which means i'll need to pay around £10 per week in rent if your correct

    :)
    It depends. if your flat is what they consider the right size for your needs and fairly priced, then they will cover your whole rent, but if they think its too expensive, they will only cover what its worth, and even if they dont, you can always appeal.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It depends. if your flat is what they consider the right size for your needs and fairly priced, then they will cover your whole rent, but if they think its too expensive, they will only cover what its worth, and even if they dont, you can always appeal.

    i reckon my accommodation is pretty suitable, im renting a single room in a house and sharing the rest of the house with 3 others. All for just over £50 per week.
    Its not as if im renting a 4 bedroomed house all for myself, im living with the minimum possible, therefore they will hopefully pay the majority
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    if its a houseshare, and bills are included in the rent, then they will knock some off for that, as HB doesnt cover bills.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Blah wrote:
    i reckon my accommodation is pretty suitable, im renting a single room in a house and sharing the rest of the house with 3 others. All for just over £50 per week.
    Its not as if im renting a 4 bedroomed house all for myself, im living with the minimum possible, therefore they will hopefully pay the majority
    Also the amount depends on your location. You get more if you live in a more expensive borough for example. But at housing if you have just left university (like me) they will ask questions about why you can't go back to where you came from so make sure you can provide a satisfactory answer to that.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Randomgirl wrote:
    Also the amount depends on your location. You get more if you live in a more expensive borough for example. But at housing if you have just left university (like me) they will ask questions about why you can't go back to where you came from so make sure you can provide a satisfactory answer to that.

    you mean we're not allowed to move out from our parents without a reason?

    The main reason ive moved out from my parents is because im too old and after living away for 3 years we just dont get on while living together, we're grown used to me not living there.
    The second reason is that my parents cant afford to keep me. My step-dad is retired and recieves tax credits, pension credits or something which means that if i get a job while living there, his pension credit decreases! which would make it pointless me working, because for every penny i earn it would come off his allowances. The money i earn needs to be paying off my £1500 overdraft not towards providing for an entire family.

    Could i say that to them if they asked for a reason i moved out?

    I do find the whole thing a bit tedious, having to explain why im not living with my family at 21.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I dont think theyll ask you for a reason. They dont expect you to move back home once youve moved out surely? Ive never been asked that on the several occasions ive claimed HB.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well I am in a fairly similar situation to you and am in the process of applying for various benefits including housing having just finished university.

    They wanted a three year address history and wanted to know where I was from before going to university. I told them I lived with my mother before going to university and they asked why I couldn't go back there. I told them that she has moved house to a different area to where we used to live and then they asked me why I couldn't move to that house. I told them that my mother's new house is too small for anyone else to live there and they accepted this as a valid reason. (This is the truth).

    Also I must stay in the same location as I am on a hospital waiting list and if I moved borough or even to a different part of the borough I wouldn't be able to go to that hospital and would have to be refered to a different hospital and start from the bottom of the waiting list again.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    when I originally left home at 16 and claimed benefits, they did ask why, and I told them the situation was untenable at home.
    Theyre not gonna make you go back.
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