I have recently graduated from uni, looking for a job. After a few months of being reluctant to claim benefits because I didn't feel I needed them as much as some other people, it became more difficult financially, no luck with jobs. We also wanted to claim council tax benefit and were advised this is easier if you claim jobseekers (I have to claim money in order not to have to pay them other money, where's the logic?) so I went to claim jobseekers.
Living with boyfriend, he's going back into education so although it was my claim he had to prove income (or lack of) and sign to say he wasn't going to claim jobseekers. Fine. Told it would take about 10-14 days to process, but they wanted boyfriend's university information.
About a week later I had my first work interview thing with them to prove I was still looking for a job. Still could not get university info, which was a bit of a pain, but they said bring it in as soon as possible. Again, fine.
Their job systems are crap, no jobs available that are suitable for me.
Sometime last week, we took in boyfriend's university information. I thought they'd already have started dealing with the claim, and just use the letter to confirm the information. Was relieved, thinking it was all now sorted.
Had another interview (they're every 2 weeks) today with the job centre. Still looking for a job. Anyway, I asked when the claim would be processed because I hadn't heard anything. The man checked the system. Claim has not been processed because we haven't filled in a form. Huh? The man in the job centre had never even heard of this form! Turns out it's to exempt my boyfriend from the claim. We filled that out WEEKS ago. Phoned up to check (for some reason the interviewers can't tell you anything, they can't contact the people who process claims) and they told me to fill in the form and take it in. They had not bothered to inform me about this (by phone or letter), so I could complete and hand in the form. Am I supposed to psychically know what they need? I filled in and returned everything I was given. Surely if the claim is delayed, they should phone me and tell me why. I was getting desperate on the phone, and the woman did NOT help by, when asked 'how long will it take after I hand in the form?' replying 'how long is a piece of string?' Helpful, when I'm stressed. Anyway, apparently on handing in the form it will then take between 2 and 4 weeks to process the claim. Argh! Are we supposed to eat air?
Plus this impacts on the council tax benefit claim, because they're waiting for the job centre to give them evidence of my claim, so I've had to phone to ask them to delay it (they cancel it after a certain amount of time). I'm worried this will affect the claim.. we can't pay the council tax!
Also (yes, there's more...) my boyfriend's new 15 hour a week job affects both claims, so we have fill in forms to report his income every 2 weeks. I understand they need to check our income against the claim, but seriously, 15 hours a week is NOT going to support both of us and pay rent and bills. Plus even the job centre guy said the forms were ridiculous!
I could cry...
Anyway, rant over.