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JSA and domestic violence
by debbie on 16 Apr, 2008 in
Why is it that there is no consideration given to people who are fleeing domestic violence in terms of their JSA commitments? Surely it is not reasonable to expect someone who has suffered DV and had to flee from their home, give up everything they have by way of support systems in order to go into hiding, to continue to actively seek employment without any break to sort out the rest of their life? Yet I still see women who actually have their benefits stopped because of missing their signing day, or non-attendance of their New Deal course, when the reason for this non-attendance was that they fled (often in fear of their lives) from their homes to a completely new area.
In these circumstances she can't return to her JCP or local centre as it means she has to return to her danger area and this poses a serious risk of being found by the perpetrator. The new JCP staff will of course try to help her to transfer her claim to the new area but more often than not they can't avoid her payments being stopped, it takes weeks to sort out, so she's left with no money to live on, and yet she is still expected to be completing her quota of jobsearches and applications throughout all of this when she has a lot of more pressing concerns to worry about such as how to get through one day without crying.
Surely in this day and age we can make allowances for these exceptional circumstances and give people in this position (men as well as women) a reasonable period of time (at least 3 months, but I feel 6 would be more appropriate) to figure out what they want to do from now on, sort out their housing situation, come to terms with what they have been through, and generally get themselves back together so that when they start looking for work again they are in a position where they might actually be able to focus and commit to an employer.
Any feedback on this would be appreciated.
Hi Debbie,
Before I answer this, a disclaimer: I am not a benefits adviser. There are quite a few Jobcentre advisers and NDPAs on here who might know of ways to handle this that I don't. Please feel free to correct me / add your own thoughts!
The central point you're making is that people fleeing domestic violence are generally not able to find and take on work until they've sorted out the other issues in their life. The particular group you've highlighted are JSA claimants, meaning unemployed people who aren't caring for young children and are not sick or disabled, and thus are not eligible for Income Support (or, presumably, Incapacity Benefit/ESA).
I agree that expecting people to look for work when they flee DV seems rather harsh. Theoretically, they should no longer claim JSA until they've sorted their life out, as JSA is solely for people who are actively available for and seeking work. The problem is that there don't appear to be any other options - domestic violence isn't regarded as an illness or disability, so the benefits system sees no reason why they shouldn't be looking for work.
There are a few ways that people in this situation could be supported:
- Flexible New Deal will give a lot more freedom to JCP staff and providers when it comes to deciding what happens to each customer. The only requirements in flexible New Deal are action planning, signing on every two weeks, and attending at least 4 weeks full time training in a year. DV escapees could actually benefit from being 'parked', i.e. not forced to carry out any activities. This would depend on the provider being amenable, of course
- The benefits could be changed somehow. This could be an agreed time-out, as you suggest, or eligibility for another benefit such as IS. I would be tempted to argue that the most effective way of handling it would be to take DV escapees out of the central benefits system and give a separate budget to womens (and mens) refuges to spend on their customers. This would identify the customer group far more effectively than reviews in Jobcentres
- As for signing on and attending courses near their previous home, that sounds like something that really should already be working ok. It's not unknown for JSA claimants to move house. There are also special provisions in place for claiming housing benefit on two homes at once when necessary.
[format] => 1 [timestamp] => 1208344801 [name] => Daniel [mail] => [homepage] => [uid] => 1 [registered_name] => Daniel [picture] => [data] => a:5:{s:7:"contact";i:1;s:17:"mimemail_textonly";i:0;s:18:"admin_compact_mode";b:1;s:15:"googleanalytics";a:1:{s:6:"custom";i:0;}s:21:"flexibleaccessibility";a:3:{s:6:"colour";s:13:"high contrast";s:4:"font";s:5:"large";s:6:"linear";N;}} [score] => 0 [users] => a:1:{i:0;i:0;} [thread] => 01/ [status] => 0 [contact] => 1 [mimemail_textonly] => 0 [admin_compact_mode] => 1 [googleanalytics] => Array ( [custom] => 0 ) [flexibleaccessibility] => Array ( [colour] => high contrast [font] => large [linear] => ) [depth] => 0 [new] => 0 )Speaking as an NDPA, I have no clue what I'd do in this situation! I've not run into this before with any of my customers.
Sadly, the benefit does what it says on the tin. It's an allowance for jobseeking. However, I believe JCP staff are allowed to 'treat someone as available for work' for up to 8 weeks. This can be used at their discretion if a person has certain domestic problems, whereby they can sign on but not be 'pushed' on their jobsearch. Beyond this, however, I would imagine the only alternative is Income Support/Incapacity Benefit with a doctor's note for stress.
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