Jobseekers taken away- please help

iPearly

Qestion for a friend
He has been unemployed since August as he lost his job due to arson. He signed on and Straight away he applied for a course which was to start in october. Then it was nov, dec, jan and february. They couldnt get 20 people from louth and meath to sign up and be willing to start a free hgv licence course hence the delays.
With that he can walk into a good job tomorrow.
So finally the course is starting in 2 weeks guaranteed. Friday he got a letter saying his job seekers is being taken away cause he is not looking for work.
Apparently he got some form weeks back and didnt understand everything (hes foreign)so he made an appointment at local social welfare office. He told them there he is starting a course any day and they told him to sign and send the letter off.
As he didnt provide( I assume) proof of seeking work they took his benefit away. He has to appeal it now.
I want to help him but I dont know how. Their world just collapsed and there's a wife and a child involved. He would take a job tomorrow even for a week but he wants to do the course thats he waited for thathgives him better prospects. What do we do???
This is not a person that wants to live off state-but they want to survive the next few weeks.

FloatingVoter

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/supplementary_welfare_schemes/supplementary_welfare_allow.html

Assuming he qualifies, that should keep him going until he gets the JA back on track.

Gormal

The forms he got were probably review forms and he would have been asked what jobs he applied for, when, who with, how he applied (letter, email, asked in person) and if he got a response or offer. If he left that blank, that's probably why they stopped it. I assume the course is through SOLAS? He will have to appeal the decision and apply for SWA as in the link above. I think somebody should go with him to help explain things, perhaps there was a miscommunication. Some of the staff are brutal in some of the offices.

wokingvoter

He needs to go to his local Citizens Advice Centre first thing and bring any correspondence he has from SW and PPSN of his family and ask them to help him

iPearly

Gormal wrote: »

The forms he got were probably review forms and he would have been asked what jobs he applied for, when, who with, how he applied (letter, email, asked in person) and if he got a response or offer. If he left that blank, that's probably why they stopped it. I assume the course is through SOLAS? He will have to appeal the decision and apply for SWA as in the link above. I think somebody should go with him to help explain things, perhaps there was a miscommunication. Some of the staff are brutal in some of the offices.

That's exactly what happened. Woman there told him to sign and took it all at the window.
Thanks very much

Gormal

iPearly wrote: »

That's exactly what happened. Woman there told him to sign and took it all at the window.
Thanks very much

As wokingvoter said, he should go to the local citizens information to help him with it all. Your friend should have gone there with the forms in the first place, they would have gone through them all with him and they will help with the appeal forms.

KERSPLAT!

Find out where the local community welfare officer is and make an appointment with them and the SW office