JCP won't allow me onto JSA from ESA

Post Reply New Topic

I am on the ESA support group but a few months ago i tried to get onto JSA for the extra JCP services that are provided to people on JSA but when i went to the local job centre plus they said they would not allow me onto JSA as they think that i am not capable of work (from a JCP branch manger) then i tried to call the DWP only for them to call up the next day saying that they would not allow me onto jsa as i was in the esa support group on a 3 years term and would on consider it when the 3 years are up.


So they won't consider letting me onto jsa until at least 2nd of april 2018

why did you call the department of water & power?

Department of work and pension.

Hmmm... perhaps you could try getting a letter from your doctor certifying that you are able to work?

I think that the best thing for you to do would be to arrange a meeting with them to discuss your situation. Obviously we are not experts of the benefits system on WP. But I have personally been on ESA and JSA so I have a little experience of them both. Your other option would be to get a job and discontinue all benefits. There's nothing to stop you from doing that really if you want to work as far as I can see. Being on ESA is in fact more favourable as there are no expectations on you to show up at the job centre to sign on. Why do you want to be on JSA?



Some background for people not in the UK:

ESA = Employment and Support Allowance: If you are ill and not able to work then you can be put on this benefit.
JSA = Job Seeker's Allowance: Basic benefit if you are seeking work
DWP = Department for Work and Pensions: Slave drivers, don't ask!

cool thanks but what acronym do they use to refer to the department of water and power in the UK?

Are you being a troll Alex!? Anyway I don't think we have one as it's all been privatised.

No was just curious. That makes sense regarding the privatization though.

OK fair enough. I was a bit worried your account got hacked or something there for a minute. Anyway nice to finally meet you on here.

Well, electricity and gas there's Scottish hydro, sse, British gas npower among others. In Scotland water is paid for through council tax and England and Wales there are various companies who provide it.

For those who don't know, Los Angeles, where Alex lives, has a publicly run utility called Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. LADWP controls the water allocations for LA County (important since LA is a desert that imports water from hundreds of miles away) and also provides the electricity. Originally, LA's electricity needs were served by Southern California Edison, which is (it still serves Orange County and other non-LA County suburbs) likely one of the original electric companies set up by Thomas Edison, thus the name. (NYC and Detroit also have "Edison"-named electric providers.) At some point, LA County bought out Edison. LADWP likely dates from the "water wars" era in the early 20th century, when Mulholland stole water rights from the surrounding desert areas, such as Owens Valley, and pumped that water to LA. So, that's where Alex is coming from.

Interesting stuff Pezar.

mm, m'dear, be careful what you wish for. JSA isn't fun and you are supposed to spend 5 hours a day 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year looking for work. The do have Disability Advisers, but they aren't generally much for to people on the spectrum. If you are on JSA they can offer things like group sessions on confidence building, CV writing, interview skills, but none of it especially for ASD. So these sessions are for people probably very different from you with different needs. And if you don't turn up to these sessions, or meet the other demands of JSA, then you get sanctioned.

You can do some work on ESA and it gives you a lot more flexibility e.g. to have 'off days' hiding at home, to go on holiday, or to arrange to go on a training course. I'm on JSA and stuck using their cr*ppy database of jobs and logging all my job seeking on their system every single day, then going in every fortnight and not being sure who I'll be talking to and what mood they'll be in.

The privatised utilities in the UK are regulated by OFGEM (gas and electricity) and OFWAT (water) as far as I know. You can raise a complaint with them if you feel your supplier has acted unfairly (or not in accordance with the law) and have exhausted the supplier''s own complaints procedure. Don't know if that bears any similarity to the American system.

I'd have thought you'd be able to at least make an application for JSA. However, to be able to get JSA you have to meet the criteria of being 'available for and actively seeking work'.

If you are in the ESA support group, that means the DWP have some proof that you have quite limited capability, and the JSA people might treat that as being unavailable for work.

Personally though, I'd stay on ESA. You'll get more money, it doesn't stop you from looking for work, you can still volunteer for various back-to-work schemes, you can do some work (see the Permitted Work rules), and as already mentioned, it'll give you more flexibility, e.g. if you were feeling ill.

This thread is doing my head in.

One of my areas of brain-melt is acronyms.

steve: apparently the way the assessment system for ESA works is that the assessors have weekly targets to meet of what % of people they put into each 'box'...JSA, ESA (Work related activity group) and ESA (Support gp). They can find themselves near the end of the week having been too harsh to people to make sure they boot them off ESA and having to 'find' people to put into the ESA groups. So while ideally people are in the right group for their needs, they might end up in a group that's too demanding or insufficiently demanding for them.

Nevertheless, I strongly suggest mmcool2 enjoys the freedom ESA provides. I have to go through lots of formfilling to do skilled volunteering and advanced courses, and that's with the support of an excellent 'Job coach' at the Jobcentre who understands ASD. When she's no in I can be seen by evil moo moos who grill me because of my poor eye contact. The consensus is that being on JSA is no fun with few opportunities for people like us to expand our skillset.