Just left college, little money, refused Job Seekers' allowance. Why?

[victorio83]

I have just left college and am looking for a job. I have never had a job due to being in full time education so have no savings except from pocket or birthday money or from selling my belongings on Ebay, and at the moment that's a grand total of £30. I made a claim for Job Seeker's Allowance, got texted with an initial appointment, went to it, was told there would be no problem with my claim and to return the next week for my first sign on. I did so, and again, everything went smoothly, I was given a couple of jobs to apply for, and discussed possible training with the woman who was assigned to me. She also said there would be no problems with me getting the allowance and that whilst her computer said the claim was still coming through, the money should be with me by Friday(yesterday) and to keep checking my bank. It didn't come through yesterday so I just thought perhaps it might today. Nothing. Then I received two letters in the post just now, one informing me that "Jobseeker's Allowance is a taxable income", fair enough, but then another letter informing me that "They cannot pay me" Job Seeker's Allowance because "the law says we cannot pay you." No further explanation. And the phone lines are closed till Monday and I am staying at my boyfriend's for a few days (long distance relationship, will still be applying for jobs online whilst I'm there before anyone starts having a go at me for "not actually looking for work whilst trying to claim) so I won't be able to get this sorted very quickly at all! Can anyone give me any information? Why would they have refused me when both workers said I was entitled and that there would be no problems whatsoever??

[garret]

a good way to earn money after leaving college is to sell your body, i was in a similar situation as you when i left university, had nothing started seling ym body now i have an income of about £58.50 a week and all the heroin i can inject. give it a go.

[curadhan74]

What a really frustrating letter - and getting it while the wretched place is closed...!

Ring on Monday and ask them to be absolutely specific about WHICH law says they can't pay you and why.

The most likely explanation is that it's an error - not much comfort, but hard to see why otherwise.

[amdt57]

The only reasons for this would be: you're not British, you have savings of several thousand pounds, you don't have a bank account, you didn't apply for enough jobs, you aren't available for work. Stuff like that. Sounds like you could get it sorted fairly easily on monday.

[ji]

I thought that you could only claim JSA if you have a full year of NI contributions. If not they put you on income support (different department).
UK

[chiram97]

If you look online there are 3 reasons why you might not get it

1) you are under 18 (they should have asked you this when you applied so would have already known)

2) your parents are claiming child support for you (they would not know if this was the case when you applied)

3) your course has not officially finished (you may have left but has your course offficially finished?)

So there are 2 reasons that could apply which they would not have known about until later.

It may be that the "the law says we cannot pay you" was not well phrased
It may be that "the law says you are not entitled to it" would have been better
i.e - it aint that you are entitled to it but there is a law says they cant pay you, but according to the rules you aint entitled to it in the first place

You have to remember - the workers do NOT have access to all the information relevent to YOU
(that would be breach of the data protection act)
Really they should not have said ANYTHING about your entitlement or any potential problems
THEY only deal with your application. Its other people that check your eligibility