Flexible New Deal Scandal:
Flexible New Deal

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Perhaps sanctioned if Actively Seeking Employment however not the steps stated on your Jobseeker Agreement?

This is a must read for anyone whom Jobcentre Plus has sanctioned for accusing them of not Actively Seeking Work for not following their Jobseeker’s Agreement (JSAg). Basically, the law doesn’t even require such steps to be followed as long as you are looking for work and have done reasonable steps with the required evidence. Read before making an appeal. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Flexible New Deal scandal has published 10 tips for Jobseekers to help them succeed. These tips are focused on the UK and assuming the jobseeker is receiving Jobseekers Allowance.

10 Jobseeker Tips

1. The Labour Market System (LMS) isn’t the be all or end all to find employment

The Jobcentre’s Labour Market System (LMS) is a requirement to Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) when you have been submitted to jobs through a Jobseeker Direction (JSD) and for steps you have agreed on your Jobseeker’s Agreement (JSAg). My advice would be, apart from when referred to by an adviser; avoid the LMS system. It is full of spoof jobs, agency jobs etc. and the genuine jobs are submitted to circa 150-299 people as Jobseeker Directions and of course many more apply directly from the website.

You are unlikely to secure a sustainable job through this system and searching it a few times a week will just get depressing and waste your resources. Statistically long-term unemployed people (although have looked elsewhere too) have made the mistake by focusing on this system as their primary source – the irony is – it is what probably makes them long term unemployed.

2. Focus on greater mediums (such as the job paper)

So, if you have been searching for jobs apart from them who advertise both in other mediums and the Labour Market System (LMS); it can say a lot about an employer whether they wish to put the money where their mouth is and get a newspaper advertisement or whether a free advert on the Labour Market System (LMS) is sufficient.
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If you have been on New Deal the chances are you had £4 unlawfully deducted weekly from travel reimbursements and expected to cover that from your training allowance.

New Deal Scandal and Ipswich Unemployed Action has confirmed this is in fact unlawful and New Deal participants may take action to recover the £52 deduction for the 13 weeks they attended. If participants have attended New Deal in the past they can still claim £52 for each 13 weeks they completed on New Deal. This could be £156 for some people.

Under 13 weeks? You can claim £4 per week for each deduction that occured.

You can also claim interest on outstanding amounts.

After some extensive research into UK Unemployment Benefit (Jobseekers Allowance) and New Deal related legislation, New Deal Scandal can inform you, confirmed by DWP, that the £4 weekly travel deductions are unlawful.  This means New Deal participants past and present are entitled to be reimbursed. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

As a Jobseekers Allowance claimant myself (when my claim hasn’t been stopped or suspended for trivial reasons such as not attending an interview they never told me about) I am not surprised that the National Audit Office (NAO) has reported a £1.2 billion under spend last year.

To stick this figure into prospective (remember it is the DWP as a whole not just JSA) if the figure comprised totally of Jobseekers Allowance at the higher rate of £60 per week, it makes 10 million payments of 20 million benefit weeks not being paid out, or 384,615 claimants a year receiving no Jobseekers Allowance at all even though entitled to do so by law.

In fact this raises a huge question about DWP, Jobcentre Plus; and their repeatedly unlawful tactics and techniques to take ones legal entitlement away, which I will explain later in to the article. As the Jobseekers Act 1995 (as amended) makes it your legal entitlement and the Jobcentre is doing the best to avoid paying that money out to you this comes under fraud in my definition and as such this £1.2 billion under spend will be categorised as a £1.2 billion fraud.

This is on top of the £750 million under spending on the Tax Credits system – resulting in 1.2 million claims not being made. We recently reported about the Jobseekers Allowance Scandal and the quarter of a billion pounds a year Housing Allowance cut. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

So you are unemployed, about to make a claim for Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) or have made a new claim for Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) however not attended an New Jobseeker Interview (NJI) yet. This article explains what you need to know about claiming Jobseekers Allowance.

You wouldn’t have thought that the Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg) would be a crutial element to claiming. The problem is most claimants see it as simply a pathetic agreement which is created just as procedure, whereas the truth is the Jobseekers Agreement is in effect, within a limited capacity, your power to create a law to your specification of how some elements of the Jobseekers Act 1995 (as amended) are implemented and used.

The Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg) has two main uses:- The first is to trap the typical naive Jobseeker in to being required to apply for more widespread jobs than otherwise could be argued as reasonable. As the average jobseeker doesn’t realise the full impact of the Jobseekers Agreement they will go along with whatever the Employment Officer (EO) suggests, they then sign and it becomes a large element of the rules for receiving Jobseekers Allowance. The second reason is for the Jobseekers Agreement to be used for enforcement – or should I say to decide about applying sanctions or refusing later benefit claims.

You may also hear the Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg) being an agreement you negotiate, where you pledge what you will do weekly to find work, what your responsibilities are, your availability and what restrictions you have.

Was it just me? ..Or did I hear the word negotiate mentioned? Read on… View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Jobseekers Allowance: the Scandal (A MUST READ FOR ALL JOBSEEKERS)

How many scandals can there possibly be?!  Its becoming crazy now…

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As from today the New Deal Scandal network will be also promoting the abolishment of the Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg), an proposed act of Welfare Reform View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

I was reading a great article on Welfare Reform (the Welfare Reform Bill 2009) however I greatly disagreed with the points made in the article so I decided to quote sections of it and comment!

The Welfare Reform Bill is to be a tough piece of legislation that will compel people in meeting with their obligations. It comes as no surprise and is long overdue. One of the first targets will be in removing 1 million people off Incapacity Benefit and into work. The entire benefits system is to be streamlined with Income Support being replaced with a leaner ‘out of work benefits’ system. The time has come by which those who “fiddle” the system should take account of what their obligations and duties are.

Removing one million people off “Incapacity Benefit”? Incapacity Benefit doesn’t exist. To the best of my knowledge the Welfare Reform Act 2007 replaced Incapacity Benefit and Income Support with an Employment and Support Allowance in 2008.

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