to expect any more than this priceless piece of nonsence from the jobcentre

[lowrib]

I see despite the improvements in the offices, actually not much has changed since I last signed on over a decade ago.

How's this for a piece of warped logic?

I made a fresh claim for JSA a few weeks ago. I have absolutely no money coming in, and they've sent me a letter saying:

1. "We cannot pay you because you have as much or more money coming in than the law says you need to live on ... The attached sheet shows how we worked this out"

Attached sheet:

1. "The amount the law says you need to live on each week - £0.00"

1. "This is also the amount of JSA you will get as you do not have any money coming in"

That makes no bloody sense at all.

Arrrrrrrg!!!!!!!!!!

YANBU. Email a copy to BBC News, they might well take something like this up!

Do you have any savings?

If you do they expect you live of those if they are over 6k I believe.

If you don't then, hopefully, it's just a printing error.

Do you have a live-in partner who is earning?

Seabright I may just do that!

Pineapplechunks and Slambang, thanks, but be careful you are applying logic - unfortunately it's really not applicable here!

I got to the bottom of it on the phone. It's got absolutely nothing to do with money. According to the lady I spoke to, I am to disregard the letter, it's just a standard template (really?! ).

What has happened it seems is that they have a question over my nationality. (I was born here, lived here all my life). They first of all tried to say I answered 'no' to the question "Are you entitled to live in the UK".

Then they said I didn't get my passport to them in time,. I pointed out that I as brought my passport in to the very first interview I had with them, which was only a day after I made the initial claim by phone, it would have been impossible to bring it in any earlier!

They finally admitted they'd lost the photocopy of the passport, but did explain that they have to deal with a lot of forms!

So pissed off.

Meanwhile the Council Tax benefit department have sent a letter saying they want to see (among other things):

1. 2 months statements for ALL bank or post office accounts, even if empty for both me and my partner.
2. they want to know how we're surviving with no money. If we have borrowed money from friends or family (we have) they want letters from each of them stating how much they lent us and exact dates.

Is that normal? Last time I signed on they asked how I was supporting myself, I said family and they left it at that. they didn't want bloody letters, or bank statements.

And about the statements - well my bank account I can do but my old post office savings accounts (empty) - I have no idea!

if you've paid NI conts for the past 2 years you should get contributions based JSA for 6 months, regardless of savings/partners etc. However I think they can take account of any payments in lieu of notice you may have had (as this is effectively "salary")

If you don't have enough conts then it is income based & depends on savings/household income.

YANBU though, that letter is nonsense

That's awful. Hope things get sorted soon!

I'd love to send the letter to a journalist. Does anyone know how I could actually do that though? Which journalists would actually be interested in it?

lowrib - if you want to you could approach a national yourself. Try their websites and find contact info. A lot of the journos now actually put their email addresses on their bylines.

However, it might be more effective to go to your local rag and let them deal with it - because the nationals will pick it up if it interests them anyway.

Either way do do something, as much as anything else it's a complete waste of money/energy/paper to send out meaningless template letters containing no information whatsoever.

lowrib

best thing to do if you want it sorted quickly is to write to your MP with a copy of the letter.

They will then write to DWP with an "MP's question" (Used to be called a "yellow peril" in my day, as they were always on yellow paper ) Then DWP have a ridiculously short timespan to respond to it (I think it used to be 2 working days from receipt, but can't remember for sure) and trust me any cock-ups WILL be sorted before the reply to the MP goes out the door

...and yes the council will ask for proof of everything these days in relation to any CTB/HB application, as it's means tested, as will DWP if you get onto the income-based stage of benefits (after 6months JSA conts)

When we had a problem with JSA we wrote to our local MP and they helped get things sorted for us, so that's definitely a good idea.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I might well go to my MP. She seems quite approachable.

Also, I thought I should point out - I'm not seeking to sell the story (although god knows I could do with the cash!) it would just be nice to be able to expose this kind of bureaucratic nonsense, and perhaps (well I can dream, can't I? ) embarrass them into changing their letters. I mean how hard is it to say "We have lost our copy of your passport. Please send a new one", instead of - effectively - "go away, we can't help you, and for good measure here's some screwy logic to baffle you"?!

If I did sell it, it would make for an interesting conversation down the job centre though wouldn't it?

"Have you done any work, paid or unpaid, in the last fortnight, Ms lowrib?"

"No, but I did sell one of your ridiculous letters for a tidy sum"!

BetsyBoop - I know it's mean tested, but I've had means-tested benefits before, and they certainly didn't ask for me to get letters from my family and friends to prove they've lent me money! How long have they been doing that for?