Income based JSA queries.

[hellomiffy]

Hi everyone,

 

In July 2010 I became unemployed having been made redundant. I stared claiming Contribution based JSA straight away and after just over 6 month I found a job on 6 month contract. (my contribution-based JSA ran out a couple of weeks before I started the job). I also had a private mortgage protection policy, so I was receiving insurance money while I was unemployed.

 

6 months on, I finished my contract and I became unemployed again. So I recently applied for Income based JSA - within the form, I had to tell them that I had a mortgage protection policy and provide info about the premium, and about my mortgage lender.

 

I provided all the info requested, and was waiting for the decision for a couple of weeks, I now received a letter yesterday from JSA Mortgage Team asking for more info about the insurance and my mortgage, to help them decide how much JSA that they can pay me.

 

Note: [in this letter, it asked me to contact my Insurance company and make a claim - however I had already contacted my insurance company previously and I was told that I'd have to send a confirmation letter from JSA to make another claim (or resuming the claim I made about a year ago - which pays up to 12 months, temporary work of no more than 6 month can be dealt as one claim) - this is a catch 22 situation and a bit of a problem but I've sent a copy of the letter to my insurance company so I'm relatively happy to wait for their reply at the moment.]

 

Anyway, I checked my bank statement today, and noticed that JSA had paid 2 weeks of allowance (around £130) into my account!!

 

So what I want to know now is,

 

1. Do I still have to send them all the document? - I'd rather not, if I don't have to, I'm pretty happy with what I'm receiving.

2. Do I need to contact JSA and tell them that I'm receiving the allowance even though they had sent me a letter to say they're still deciding?

 

If anyone here has any idea what might have happened here I'd appreciate your comments/advice.

 

Thank you!

Hellomiffy

[sillygirl1]

I'd still send them the documents, they have a habit of loosing information and not tying it together properly. I had to send my info to them five times before they got the message.

[leemack]

The mortgage interest section of JSA works separately to your basic claim - so although you are now being paid JSA, you still need to send the info requested so that a decision can be made on your current and future help with mortgage interest entitlement.

[hellomiffy]

The mortgage interest section of JSA works separately to your basic claim - so although you are now being paid JSA, you still need to send the info requested so that a decision can be made on your current and future help with mortgage interest entitlement.

 

Thank you for your comments - So does it mean that they have decided that Im eligible for basic Income based JSA, if so shouldn't I be receiving a letter to confirm the decision?

Also I never meant or wanted to ask for mortgage interest entitlement - because I'm happy with my basic allowance.

If I contact them and tell them that I don't need mortgage interest entitlement, would they just close the case, or do they still ask for the documents?

Or if I just ignore the letter - would they stop the basic allowance too?

 

Thanks for your help!

[ErikaPNP]

They should send you a notification of their decision to award JSA, and probably have. Payments tend to get there before the letter.

 

I wouldn't advise ignoring any letter which requests a response - they can suspend payments of benefit when a response is not received to enquiries because it raises a query over the address. You could write back and tell them that you don't wish to claim Support for Mortgage interest.

[hellomiffy]

They should send you a notification of their decision to award JSA, and probably have. Payments tend to get there before the letter.

 

I wouldn't advise ignoring any letter which requests a response - they can suspend payments of benefit when a response is not received to enquiries because it raises a query over the address. You could write back and tell them that you don't wish to claim Support for Mortgage interest.

 

Ah yes, that's very true about the query over the address. I will wait for the letter to come through and then will reply to the Mortgage Team in writing.

I really hope that they have sent me the letter to award JSA so that I can start claiming the insurance...

 

Thanks for your help!

[ErikaPNP]

If you haven't got it within 3 days of the payment crediting your account, I'd suggest contacting them.

[hellomiffy]

Update: I received the letter from JSA confirming the amount of benefits etc. and for some reason I got the CONTRIBUTION based JSA for another 6 months!? I was receiving contribution based JSA from July 10 to Jan 11 so I thought I wouldn't be eligible for it again??