Delay processing claim

mondeo

Just a quick few questions for anyone in a similar situation. My partner applied for the social welfare 'job seekers allowance' 2 months back. She was self employed there for a couple of years and gave up the business last December.
Anyways she went through all the processes there in February, handing in her application forms and then waited to be means tested. Her means test consisted of handing in her accounts for her business during self employment, bank account statement, credit union statements and filling in a few more forms to finalise things. Now she is waiting approval for her claim, its been 7 weeks since sitting her means test! Meanwhile she has been on a tempory supplementary benefit of e-186 per week while waiting to be approved.

Anyone have any ideas why its taking so long for them to stamp a form and approve her claim?

What happens if they reject her claim, are they going to ask her to pay back the 7 weeks tempory supplement she has already received?

She is Abit worried about being stung for these 7 payments if she is rejected. She didn't ask for this tempory benefit, she was offered it while waiting her claim. Any info?

Thanks:)

Sue Ellen

For self employment claims a Social Welfare Inspector must review the claim to make a decision. She may have to be seen personally, it can take 4 months.

If her claim is disallowed the money paid by the CWO will not have to be repaid as it was their decision to pay her. The CWO normally pay based on what they think the outcome from Social Welfare will be.

mondeo

Sue Ellen wrote: »

For self employment claims a Social Welfare Inspector must review the claim to make a decision. She may have to be seen personally, it can take 4 months.

If her claim is disallowed the money paid by the CWO will not have to be repaid as it was their decision to pay her. The CWO normally pay based on what they think the outcome from Social Welfare will be.

thanks for the reply,

She had been up for a means test interview weeks back where she sat with an inspector and went through her accounts during her self employment the past two years. She went through her personal bank statements also. She has no savings and made a big loss during her last year of self employment. Business went down the tube so she gave it up, she is in a bad way regarding money and is relying on this job seekers allowance to come through.

She is currently no longer registered as a self employed person.

Sue Ellen

There is no requirement to de register to apply for JSA.

From my experience it takes between 3 to 4 months for a decision where self employment is involved.

The process would usually be first contact with the office, then come back for claim appointment and provision of supporting documents, then meeting with SW Inspector and about 4 weeks later the claim goes into payment.

Other than this I can't say much more other than to advise you to contact your Local Office to look for an update.

Pippy1976

I have personal experience of this exact situation.

I was registered as self-employed. Needed to go on dole since February this year. The first day of unemployment I went to dole office and filled in the necessary paperwork. About 6 weeks went by with no word. I phoned to see what the story was, they suggested I call to office and meet with officer. I did that. He checked through all my forms. The reason it had taken so long was because the administrator noticed I was self-employed and was meant to forward the form to him for approval. Anyway, he / she didn't do that which delayed things further.

The officer asked for proof of earnings, expenditure and receipts to match same. I sent all that in. The following week he had forwarded all the documents to someone else and they approved it. Another week when by and finally a back-dated cheque came through ( I hadn't been receiving the interim payments).

Being self-employed usually means these things take a bit longer. My advice is to make a call once a week to check the status of your claim. Once they have all the documents required it usually takes about a week to get your payment to you.

I'm not sure why people are saying it takes 4 months... it doesn't... 2 months at the most (I've had the same ordeal last year so speak from experience).

cee_jay

Pippy1976 wrote: »

I'm not sure why people are saying it takes 4 months... it doesn't... 2 months at the most (I've had the same ordeal last year so speak from experience).

Every office is different - some offices may larger backlogs than others, and each case is different.