Another Minor Rant
I received my reply from the Job Centre today regarding my letter to them to look at my situation once more and reconsider their earlier decision not to grant my claim for JobSeekers Allowance. Here it is…
Now I must start by saying that I am not really that upset by their decision, just the way it has come about. Let me explain.
After leaving the US back in September of 2004 I returned to the UK but did not apply for any allowance. After a few weeks I decided I was going to go to NZ anyway so it was hardly worth applying. After returning from NZ I decided to claim for JobSeekers Allowance which is a maximum of 55 quid a week but it is better than nothing while I am looking for work.
At the Job Centre I had to fill out numerous forms and due to having been away from the UK for “some time” I had two more forms to fill out asking questions about my time away and whether I had any ties with the US etc.
So I wait two weeks for a decision and hear nothing so when I go to sign on at the Job Centre I ask to see how my claim is doing. I was told that it had been sent to a decision maker and to wait another week. So I wait another week and then get a letter in the post saying my claim was denied. I contacted the lady who made the decision and we realize that the form was ambiguous and that I had misled them on the form (which is why a face to face would have been nice). The misleading information was basically that I still had a bank account in the US and I had said in reply to the question of how long I expect to stay in the UK - “For the foreseeable future”. This, I was told, was not really the answer they wanted. I am sure “Til I die of old age” would have been more to their satisfaction!
I am told that for them to look at my case again I have to send them a letter expaining the points we discussed. I did so…
Today I receive the letter you see above. Now here is what makes me angry.
When a decision is made by the decision maker they obviously have set criteria which a person must meet to be eligible for the allowance. If they set these criteria out up front and make the claimant aware of these then there should not be a problem when the decision is reached. The fact I have been away for a few years and returned recently is the reason I do not meet their criteria. Yet they do not say that if, for example, a person has been living abroad for lets say more than 2 years, that when they return to the UK without securing employment first that they will have to wait 3, 4 ,5 months or whatever period of time has previously been determined before being eligible for the allowance.
It seems to me that their criteria are open ended and ambiguous for the sole reason that they want to save money and here is how they do it…
By having this open ended criteria they can make decisions on a case by case basis and due to not having set dates for period of time away from the UK or period of time you have to be back in the UK before claiming they can basically say what they want! In the above letter they say I have been away for a long period of time but who determines what a long time is? They also say that I may apply, say around July. What!? Just pick a random month in the future and say maybe better luck then as you will have been back longer at that time. Why do they not have set dates? To delay claims that’s why!
By having this in place it gives them a good period of time to deny peoples claims with their ambiguous criteria and by the time you may possibly be eligible to claim you will probably have already got a job anyway. You will have had no support while you were looking for a job and they will have saved all that money by not giving you support. Then they can go and spend it on nice hot meals for asylum seekers…
It seems to me that being a British Citizen ain’t the big thing it used to be. I may as well go back to the US because at least the troubles I initially had when I moved there were primarily based on the fact that I was not a US citizen and had not worked over there or contributed to the country in any way. Fair enough. I am happy to accept that. But returning to my homeland where you expect a nice welcome home for the prodigal son, all you get is, no you can’t have a bank account and we can’t help you while you look for work mate and no you can’t have a credit card either as all of the above have gone to immigrants and asylum seekers…
God Bless America, that’s all I can say…
Tags: Post-Trip
April 27th, 2005 at 10:35 pm
That’s f*****g s**t.
Note the ’signature’ of the decision maker. Looks like Flat Eric to me. In fact, the whole thing reminds me of that video…..
So at least you know where all your NI contributions have gone. Changed landscape these days. The sun never used to set etc, but now they can’t even take care of their own.
You could always sell your passport for cash on the black market - it’s bound to be of use to someone - perhaps not you - and the whole cash thing bypasses having to deal with the banks!
Seems that having a passport just isn’t that lush these days…..
April 27th, 2005 at 10:58 pm
Innes - you said it mate. I will appeal and see how that goes. Lets face it, even if I did win the appeal they would grant me a tiny allowance as a way of saying “up yours”. But you have to stand up and be counted don’t you.