claim being closed 'cos I'm away

Mrs OBumble

Wondering if anyone can point me towards the right documents etc here:

I'm on JB, and am going to my brother's wedding in New Zealand. I'll be out of the country for about 4.5 weeks, and realistically will need a few days after that to recover from the jet lag. So let's call it five weeks. I haven't used any of my two week holiday allowance this year.

Went in to the office to tell them about this yesterday, and was told that because I'm going to be away for more than three weeks, my claim needs to be closed from the day that I leave.

Effectively this means that:

- I'm not entitled to any holiday allowance, and

- There is no consideration given to any extenuating circumstances (the wedding is in NZ, not somewhere close, and I'm the only direct family member still alive - going is simply not optional, and cultural/family obligations mean that a three week trip is similarly not feasible)

I've said that I'm going to appeal this ... now I need to work out on what grounds! Any pointers to policies/manuals etc gratefully received.


The irony of it is that I'm on dockets: I could have simply filled in five of 'em before I left, and got a friend to post one every Thursday morning.

The extra irony is that I'm also on half-rate: if they leave the claim open I'd stay on that, whereas if I have to make a new claim when I come back I'll probably get a higher rate. So they'll end up paying me more anyway! I'd still rather the claim was left open though: the woman yesterday had the cheek to lie and say "it won't take long to get re-started once you get back".

Xiney

Well, it may not take long to get restarted since it's just reopening your claim.

Still... I don't really know what to say.