(Click here if you want to go straight to your further options)
Here’s the scenario: you’re happily claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (or maybe not so happily) and have been signing on every two weeks for a while, but then your payments stop and you’re left high and dry. Maybe you have an idea of why this have happened, or maybe you have no idea at all.
This purpose of this section is to explain the rules that the Jobcentre Plus are using in this kind of situation, and what your options are. We need to look at two main issues: jobseeking rules and sanctions.
But first, some bad news, if you’ve been on Jobseeker’s Allowance in the past: the rules about sanctions were changed in late 2012. I’ll talk about this is more detail later on, but I need to warn you that some of the sanctions have got a lot longer. Before 2012 sanctions could be anything between one and 26 weeks long: now they can be anything from 4 weeks to 3 years. I know: I think this is shocking too…
So here’s some important advice…
If you can possibly avoid it, make sure you don’t get sanctioned
at all! If you get sanctioned once, do whatever you can to avoid
getting sanctioned again! |
Now choose one of the following options:
‘I want to know about the jobseeking
rules’
‘What happens if I haven’t kept to the
jobseeking conditions?’
'What can I do if I've been
sanctioned and or my JSA has ended?’