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Hi,
I have been claiming JSA since my switch over from IS when my youngest son turned 7 in March. My advisor told me last week that I have been moved on to the "people upstairs" in the benefits office. All she has told me is that I will hate seeing them, they are really thorough and tough and all her lone parents come down crying and complaining, saying it is a nightmare up there!
I'm worried sick, I have two children, 9 and 7 and no support or childcare in place. I also look after my elderly mum but I am not her official carer. I don't want to go down that route, she would hate to be deemed officially dependent, she was my dad's carer for 40 years.
Can I be sent on a compulsory work programme, what hours would that be, and could they do it now in the summer holidays?
Why have I been passed on to these people (whoever they are?) I thought I'd be claiming JSA for 26 weeks before I got moved anywhere.
My advisor has been worse than useless, I asked over a year ago to be sent on a computer course, she finally signed me up 4 weeks before my switch over in March, then told me that I couldn't continue with that course whilst claiming JSA!!
Lastly, my sister has booked a 1 week holiday for us all in the UK, she lives abroad and this is a one off. We are due to leave on the Monday morning but I am booked for my second appointment with the apparent "horrors" upstairs on the Tuesday; am I entitled to a weeks holiday? what are my options? I know if I say I'm sick or something they will just call me in the following day or the day after that, and then they'll want a doctors certificate, so I can't lie, they are extremely thorough in London. I couldn't drive back to London the next day and then return, it's too far.
Please help, I'm seeing them on Tuesday and have felt sick with stress and fear all week and it's getting worse!
So glad I found this site though, I'm all set to become a regular!
Hi again pickylou. Take a look through this here it's all about JSA.
I've just noticed the time that you posted. Do you have trouble sleeping? Hope you have a good day, and perhaps get some rest when the two kids are at school.
Morning
This is disgraceful. I'd make a complaint to the manager. As far as I thought work programme referrals happen after you have been claiming JSA for a year or if you have been claiming 22 out of 24 months (and I thought that was JSA not IS as well). It might be a good idea to ask to have an appointment with the manager so he or she can discuss this better with you and hopefully put your mind at rest.
You can tell the jobcentre that you are a carer but not an official one and ask them to make a note of that.
You are entitled to go away in this country and you will need to fill out a form with the details of where you are going and that you are still available for work.
With regards to computer courses have a look at learndirect.co.uk (who offer free courses and careers advice, cv support) or vision2learn (free online course).
I'm not sure about the holiday thing and the work programme either.
Good luck x
Hi pickylou
Nice to see you and you are welcome here.
First of all please try to stop stressing about this. It is totally fruitless and this silly person has panicked you out of all proportion.
Secondly let's look at the practical details. You will have to explain that you have a few days holiday coming up when the next appointment is due. You can also say that you are still available for work and would happily have an interview during this time or take a suitable job offer. ( If the worst comes to the worst then you could not leave on Monday, and just leave after your appointment on Tuesday)
Your mum: totally understand how she feels but as hazeleyes says she might take a different view if she knew that you were feeling like this. Does she receive Attendance Allowance? How much care does she need? It is worth exploring this avenue for BOTH of you. Tell us a bit more.
Please see this thread for the latest info we have about employment for single parents in general.
Re The Work Programme, looking at the Citizen's Advice guidance about this, the first "review" interview takes place after 13 weeks on JSA, is that where you are at the moment? It is where they look at your job seeking strategy. The Work Programme: there is no specific mention about the school summer holidays but you must be assertive and explain you have no childcare for your children and cannot reasonably be expected to do this until September (this IS a "very good reason" to delay any Work Programme activities) If they say well how can you claim JSA if you are saying you could not work anyway because of childcare, you explain that if you got work, you would also be claiming Working Tax Credit which would cover the vast majority of your childcare costs.
Deep breath!!!!!!
Hello Everyone,
Firstly, thank you all so much for your helpful advice and support. I'm actually feeling quite emotional having just read your replies. I never admit to being scared/stressed/ worried/ feeling helpless, I think giving off an air of complete confidence and competence came with becomming a single parent. You are the first people I have communicated my true feelings with and it's the first time I've posted anything online! Thanks for being there.
I can't complain to the manager, she is a very good friend of my advisor. They snigger and actually bitch about other colleagues in front of me, so unprofessional.
My mum is quite able really but she is almost completely deaf, diabetic, thyroid, high blood pressure,depression and unable to walk very far at all. I do all the shopping, pop in and out, pretty much on call - take her to all doctors and hospital appointments, (of which there are many, she is also a bit of a hypochondriac). Actually that's not fair, she is currently undergoing a lot of tests, she has got it into her head she has pancreatic cancer (we lost my dad to this 5 years ago)and she/we are very worried. Anyway, yes, we have had the conversations about the jobcentre and how it would get them off my back, but she just isn't comfortable with it. I think part of it is, that she doesn't want to make a claim, because these bloody people terrify her too! Whatever her reasons, now is not the time to make her feel she's under pressure, so that conversation will have to wait. I have told my advisor repeatedly what the situation is but her response is always, that unless I am her carer it doesn't really count.
I feel much better about the interview (still dreading it though) but thank you Louise for the tip about working tax credit paying for childcare. That is exactly the kind of thing I need to say but never have the information, so I sit there like a naughty child being dictated to.
God, this is making me feel so low. I really want to work but term time. My boys have no contact with their dad, he never looked back when we split up, he just abandoned them. I feel really strongly that I need to be there for them, even more because of this, I think most single parents do feel this way, and I also think it's justified!
Wow, I think that's the most I've spoken to anyone in years about my situation and I'm rambling now that I've taken the lid off!
Thanks again everyone, any more info will be very welcome. I'm off to the park now with my angels 
Oh and Hazeleyes, I was up late trying to do a jobsearch, I've been all over the place this week and haven't had much time. Normally I'm zonked out by 11pm!
Hi pickylou
That's what we are here for, to help and let you share your worries 
Unfortunately your care for your mum is less likely to be taken into consideration than if you were an "official carer" in the system, however, your responsibilities for your children are significant and the thread that I highlighted in my last post showed that childcare issues for those with children under 13 are being allowed for.
Hi pickylou. It's great isn't it, being able to off load to people who understand exactly what you're feeling etc. I'm really pleased that it's helped you I know exactly what you mean about wanting to be there for your children. I'm in the same boat, and it is a huge fear of mine.
How long have you been a single Mum? It's shameful on your ex's part that he can so easily walk away. How are the children dealing with it?
As for your Mum, I understand on that one too. xx
Hi Pickylou,
How awful for that woman to say that!!!
I was transferred to the upstairs department and I had the most wonderful adviser Megan. I actually found her a great support and enjoyed the appointments when we met. Take no notice and adopt my motto speak as you find. I am a single Parent too and now have been referred to the Joke Programme oops I mean Work Programme!!!
Hi pickylou
Your message resounds the voices of single parents around the country. Unfortunately our Parliamentary Officer is off work for a couple of weeks. As soon as she is back I will highlight this thread to her as she is able to tell the Department of Work and Pensions and politicians, the barriers/fears/confusion that single parents are facing. I hope that the responses from other users has given you some answers for the time being. 
Hi HELLY13, welcome! I don't think we have spoken before? You are just about to start the Work Programme...interesting! Laura, our parliamentary officer, is very keen to hear of your experiences, good and bad of the process. It sounds as though your advisor is brilliant and we definitely need to reflect that back to the DWP, so other jobcentres can follow her lead. Just having that one positive, encouraging person can make the difference to being successfully finding work in a sustainable job and a single parent, completely falling apart.
As I said in previous post, I will tell Laura about this thread and no doubt she will be along in August.
Please keep us informed, when do you start the Programme?
Hello again everyone,
sorry I've been unable to respond until now, my laptop has died and I have no idea what's wrong with it!
I have borrowed this one off my neice so I can update you all on my appointment with the 'Scary people upstairs' at the jobcenter. I saw a very nice man on Monday. He went through my jobseekers agreement, he didn't pressure me to change anything but offered some useful advice. He explained that I'm not yet on the work programme, it's just my 13 week review. He asked if there was anything I would like help with and has arranged for me to attend a VOLUNTARY support centre to put together a better CV. Best of all, when I told him my sister had booked us all a four day break and it clashed with my next sign on date, he produced a holiday form and told me I was entitled to a one week holiday per year. Now don't misunderstand me, this was still not a relaxing walk in the park but I was treated as an individual, with respect and consideration and I left there, feeling for the first time in ages, a little more positive.
I went to the support center today for a welcome meeting. The lady I will be seeing there was also very nice and not pressuring me about anything. We have arranged an appointment for Monday where we will go through my CV and covering letter. I can attend as little or as often as I like and use all the facilities. She suggested we meet once a week for now, for approximately 1 hour. Again, I left feeling I'd been treated properly and felt more positive about the future.
Thank you all so much for your support, you really helped me to get things in perspective and the links posted were very informative. I wish I'd found the courage to post on here when I first found this site!
I don't know if Laura would be interested in my past experience with the jobcenter but it has been awful. I was asking my Lone parent advisor for a year to be put on a computer course which I had been told they could place you on. I began asking when my son was 6 and I had a year to go before I changed to JSA from Income support. My advisor said that it was a good idea but I should speak to her about it in the summer. I asked her again in August, she said she'd sort it out for my next quarterly appointment. Then it was December and she said I could start in January. In January she feigned surprise that she had said any such thing and told me that there was a very long waiting list. I made a bit of a fuss at this point, got upset. She made an appointment for me to come in the following week to follow up and see what she could sort out. I cancelled an important appointment to go and see her, when I turned up she said that she had not booked an appointment with me. I couldn't prove it as it wasn't on their system, it wasn't one of their regular appointments. She said I must have misunderstood what she had said but she was at lunch now and fully booked for the next two weeks. I made her make me another appointment and got her to write it down with her signature. Three weeks later she met me with a smile, told me I could start the course on the following Monday, it was Thursday. She said I would only have to attend for a couple of hours a day, anything more was up to me. I turned up on the Monday and was inducted into a 13 week full time skills training center. I had to be there from 9am - 4.30pm Mon/Fri, if I didn't attend, I had to provide evidence to cover my absence or my claim would be stopped. I was in shock, I had made no arrangements for the after school care of my children and my mum would be stuck at home for the whole 13 weeks, missing her appointments and social clubs. This was the last thing I had wanted. I put up with it for 3 days and then re-negotiated my hours with them. Actually, the girl I vented to was brilliant. She told me she could reduce my hours if my JC advisor okayed it but that she had put me down as full time on the forms. I would have to go back and ask her to change it. I got lucky, I popped into the JC on the off chance and my advisor wasn't there. I pleaded to see someone else as it was urgent, they changed it straight away, saying I should never have been in there full time anyway.
I got going on the course, steaming through and actually quite enjoying it. The place itself was horrible, I don't want to sound like a snob, I was born and still live on a council estate but a large proportion of the people there were drug users and convicted criminals. There were also mental health patients and people who were in obvious need of social services help. Instead they were being bullied into applying for jobs nobody was going to give them and that they probably weren't capable of holding down anyway.
On my first morning we had to complete forms and declare any convictions. A young girl sitting next to me asked me to tell her what a word meant on her form. I looked at it and explained but at the same time couldn't help but see her list of six convictions, the top three being Aggravated Assault, ABH and Robbery. We actually got on really well, she was heavily medicated most of the time but then there were days when she hadn't taken anything, she would be so jumpy she really shouldn't have been there, it was like lighting a touch paper and she would have the most enormous fights! I felt sorry for her, she was one of many not actually getting the help they need. She was 26 and if the system has been treating her this way since she was a teenager, then it's no surprise that she has all the issues she has.
Anyway, my advisor had the last laugh. Two thirds of the way through my course I switched from IS to JSA. At the interview with her, she asked how the course was going then took great pleasure in anouncing that I could no longer attend the skills training centre to finish it. They could only authorise my being there full time and as I was on JSA I couldn't be there full time and still available for work! I asked why it was that I had been allowed to attend for just 20 hours and why I couldn't attend for that amount of time or less just untill I got the qualification? She said, she hadn't been aware I'd only been doing that many hours and as far as they (JC) were concerned, it was full time or nothing, so it would have to be nothing.
I was furious and very upset. I had worked really hard and had been looking forward to receiving my qualification. It would have been the only thing on my CV of any real value or relevance to the type of work I'm looking for.
I found out that I was not the only one she had done this to, there were at least 3 other women. I honestly don't know if it was thought out, intentional and done with malice; or if she is just stupid and couldn't care less about her 'Clients'. She is also a single mum, so you would think she would be a bit more clued up.
Anyway, the man upstairs seems like a breath of fresh air but I'm keeping my fingers crossed all the same, I've lost all trust in the Jobcenter.
Sorry to waffle on again but this has been eating away at me and is the reason I may sound a tad bitter about the JC.
I'll post an update on Monday's appointment with the support center when I can.
Night x
Hi, you should write a short story or a play, your experience sounds like a sceen from a Ken Loach film, you have enough material there, how completely wrong it all is, and just often pointless, and you just have to play along with their silly game. The best thing I have gotten from my times in and out of the JSA over the years has been the interesting people I've met : )
All the CVs and computer courses and job interview course and all the other courses have been a complete waste of time, you end up feeling like just an excuse for someone else to have a job.
Here in North Wales we used to have Working Links... don't know if they still exist but it was a farce.
Hello pickylou
Wow, first of all I am, delighted that the experiences you are having now are more positive that you had anticipated.
I read your account of the course and the debacle surrounding it with growing horror. I don't know if you have heard of a bloke called Kafka but I had to study his books at college and one of the things he wrote about was people trapped in utterly pointless systems, there is a bit where the character in the book tries to get an appointment with someone "high up" and has to sit for days outside his office.....the final irony being that you cannot SEE him to make the appointment unless you have a prior appointment (and so no-one ever gets one) It just reminded me of that!!!!
Laura is away at the moment, I will drop her an email so she will see your post when she gets back in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for keeping up updated, pickylou, I was wondering how you were doing. Have a lovely holiday and fingers crossed for your next appointment!
I read some Kafka in my twenties, I thought it might improve my chances with intellectual women, but unfortunately no. I just came to realise that I was probably living the life of one of his characters... in the futile and hopeless pursuit of an unobtainable goal. (The Castle)
...at least you weren't that one who woke up one morning and found out he had turned into a beetle, Bubblegum!!!!!!!
I believe working links do still exist, but I agree bubblegum!
Louise I sometimes feel like I've "Metamorphosized" into one on a Saturday morning :)
boom! boom! (<--- Basil Brush)
Working Links is now in the the guise of 'Ingeus'!
Oh I LOVE Basil Brush, although my youngest went through a phase of doing a (bad) impersonation of BB after every "witty" (seven year old humour) remark
They used to have offices locally, but now they will meet up with people in cafe's... More profits that way I guess (which is why I hate these things being privatised. I don't see why anyone should get rich on other people's misery).
Hi there,
I was in receipt of income support until last Aug which ended when i took employment part time, the position only lasted 3 months as at the time i was hooked on certain drugs to get me through the day.
This & a lifetime issues gave me the realisation i was never going to lead a normal life so prompted me to finally get the help i needed from my GP in Dec last year, he refered me to Psychotherapy who said thorough investigation was needed for an underlying issue so refered me to drug therapy but to return when completed so please don't judge me thinking i'm just looking for the easy route as i genuinely want to make thngs better for me & my son.
I successfully completed the drug therapy with only 2 slips & am now in my 9th week of counseling & am due to be refered back soon.
As i was unable to claim for income support i was put on JSA since Jan this year but i informed the J/C in March about the therapy but they told me to continue with JSA as i would never qualify for ESA.
The last time i attended i was told i have to attend a different part of the building so can only assume its the third phase meaning i have to attend weekly.
Although my son is fine now he has also been through a lot due to my wreckless behaviour but where things have been so much better that i was to take my son to scotland for a week to visit relatives and to have a well needed break for both of us,
I'm due to sign this monday (25th) and we were due to go away the following monday returning on the saturday but if i have to sign weekly i'm so worried about the claim being cancelled i'm debating on cancelling the break.
I ended up in very bad debt with rent and council tax when i was working last year and have just had to agree to pay £40 a fortnight to avoid bailiff recovery.
If the claim gets cancelled i would be in so much trouble, this has been a very stressful week worrying that i don't know what to do now.
I don't want to dissappoint my son as we really need a break but i cant have the claim cancelled.....
Please advise as i really dont know what to do.
Having read it, i think on another thread here, I believe you are able to have a week's holiday.
Speak to them on Monday to let them know that this has already been arranged to visit relatives. As you're leaving the following Monday, perhaps you could sign on before going if they seem negative about it?
You seem to really be doing well with getting back on track.
Have you discussed things with CAB? They may be able to give some helpful advice with regards to the rent?
Yes another member was told that one week in the Uk was alright, but I do agree with sparkling lime that maybe you could sign on before you go.
I have to say that it is fantastic that you have faced up to what was going on for you and have gone into therapy and are doing so well: hope you are proud of what you have achieved!!!
Here is a link to the Citizen's Advice Bureau website. It is great that you are paying off the debts but £40 a fortnight seems a lot, that's all
Hi minniemouse. Welcome along. I echo what Louise has said, you should be very proud of what you've achieved. Well done.
Hi Minniemouse10
I believe you can have up to 2 weeks holiday in the UK - you will just need to complete a 'holiday form' so the jobcentre can take details of where you are, how you can be contacted etc. Your payment would be automatically paid while you away and then you let the jcp know when you are back and they will advise you on when to go into sign.
However if you can go in to sign early on the Monday to avoid any hassle that seems the best option. They would still require you to fill out a holiday form though.
x
Hi pickylou. Welcome along to One Space. That is absolutely appalling the way you've been told about the 'people upstairs'. What on earth is wrong with the woman who told you this? If lone parents are coming down crying and complaining, then something has to be done, and complaints made to the officals.
You, like everyone else are entitled to a holiday so when you go on Tuesday, just inform them of your week away. I know you're stressed and worried about the visit, but try not to be.
I'm due to be switched over in September, and also dreading it. No child-care for my son either, so trying not to stress too much myself!!!
The Summer holiday thing regarding the work programme, I'm not too sure about, but please keep posting as others will have more knowledge on it. Meanwhile I shall see what I can find for you about the Work programme etc.
As for your Mum not wanting to be officially declared dependant on someone. I can really understand this. I was caring for my Mum, and through pride I guess, she also didn't want to be known to have a carer. In the end though this changed, as she realised how financially better off what we'd be, and that no-one else would need to find out etc etc. Perhaps if you could keep chatting to her. Are you able to tell her all that is going on with the JSA?