Casual Jobseekers Allowance - need advice!

JasmineK

Hi everyone, hope someone can help me. I finished working in a contract position recently and went back to receiving Jobseekers Allowance. My former boss said she had a friend who worked in recruitment and she might be able to find some temp work for me.

It actually turned out that it was only temp work on a relief basis and I have only actually worked one day temping so far. I was hoping that it would be straightforward and my local social welfare office would just deduct that particular day's payment. However, they insisted that I would have to change to casual JA and a form being filled out by my employer (the recruitment company) stating hours worked per week, wage etc. The recruitment company sent back the form saying that it was only on a relief basis and that it wasn't regular at all.

When I got paid for the one day, the social welfare office wanted a copy of my payslip. I hoped that was all. Since then I have been bringing in the yellow slips each week and have not received any payment for a month. When I enquire about it, they just say I might get my payment next week. Eventually I was told to speak with the deciding officer in another branch and they were talking about more forms to be filled out. They said if I did get another day’s temp work to fill out another form. I tried to explain that it would be the same place and the pay would be the same. There is so much trouble for just one day. It's so complicated, the amount of red tape involved is a nightmare.

I wish I had never followed up on the temp work and stayed on the normal Jobseekers Allowance, its just not worth the hassle. Has anyone had a similar experience to me? I would really appreciate some advice! Thanks a lot.