Missed collecting a JA payment due to a covid infection, now I'm being denied access to the payment

I do sympathise, but Technically as you where Sick for an entire week the DSP are correct. It's also the fact you were unable to work. It is a very Harsh decision & you could appeal but I'd be skeptical you'd succeed.

There should be information (e.g. a circular) provided by these centres, to explain the grounds on which such a decision has been made, and upon what grounds you might challenge that decision, depending on what proofs you might have.

I mean, you need to survive on something. If you're not entitled to this jobseekers' payment, there must be something else which could 'plug the gap' in your income, due to being ill. We aren't living in the days of Charles Dickens, God be good to us.

The welfare lifers don't appear to have these issues.

If not entitled to your payment, are you.then entitled to.a.disability payment or something.

I recall court cases where judges refused to fine welfare recipients as they believed their payment was the minimum amount they could live on so how does this tie in with taking complete payment from someone who was ill for a week?

This country appear to favour the workshy in all situations. At least now they are bringing in raised payments based on previous income for a period for people made redundant.

There is and very clear rules laid out with regard to collection of payments, some people on here claim folks have days to collect, they absolutely do not. A claim can and are suspended if payment is not collected on the day its Due to be collected

Those days of Judges not fining people on welfare long gone. 15% of a person's payment can be clawed back for an over payment &I presume the same applies for court fines

Where are those rules laid out? Is there a more up-to-date department circular than that which I have been able to find (2020)?

Either way, my point is the OP ought to have been able to come away with a view of the same guidelines from which the department's staff are working from, so they're all on the same sheet, so to speak. That way s/he won't be out of pocket due to a communicable illness.

You clearly had contributions as you mentioned you were made redundant. You may not like the rules & are free to appeal.

Best of luck with that

I am not the OP.

You're.

And apologies, but so are you. Social Welfare have always made provisions for when claimants could not get to the post office for some reason, illness being one of them.

As I said, anyone who is an inpatient in hospital does not have their payments stopped because they are ill, and the last thing they need to be dealing with, is DSP.

And while the OP may have made contributions in the past, not everyone has contributions to fall back on.

The only thing the OP did incorrectly here, was not advise INTREO that they couldn't make it to the post office before they were due to collect their payment. And they probably didn't know they had to do that.

It's gas, someone on JSA can go on holidays out of the country for two weeks and still get their JSA when they come back, but you're implying someone is not allowed get sick for a few days without losing their payment.

OP, appeal. It sounds to me like you encountered a jobsworth who jumped on your admission of illness as their excuse to suspend your payment because they probably didn't actually know how to deal with it properly.

And thats coming from someone (me) who has been a civil servant for over 30 years, so no bias against civil servants here.

Best of luck.

Seems pretty obvious that the clerk doesn't believe a word of the OP.

Having Covid doesn't stop you from contacting them to say you can't collect, and most people don't give a toss about self isolating now anyway so the clerk probably thinks the OP was up to something else and is just using covid as a convenient excuse after the fact.

It just isn't plausible that somebody genuinely thinks that you can skip signing on day and just rock up later on whenever it suits.

OP may not like that, but what else would prompt the clerk to start being a jobsworth? The point is that there will be little use trying to convince them to change their mind unless you address why they likely made that decision in the first place.

That temporary agent form doesn’t, and never did, apply to Jobseekers payments.

You are quite deliberately being rather petulant and referring to those on long term illness, disability or pension payments.

ÓP Was sick for a week, didn't collect their payment which was then suspended. They went on to admit they were sick and by default not available for or looking for work & lost Jobseekers payment for that week.

You've clearly not a clue what the eligibility criteria is to recieve a Jobseekers payment.

To suggest an agent can be nominated to collect someone's Jobseekers payment is preposterous.

DSP have made a decision, harsh it may be but correct.

Now move on 🙄

Thank you, I'm exhausted dealing with the shocking lack or basic understanding of how DSP operate, it's extraordinary.

I was attempting to be direct in my initial response to OP as opposed to offering ridiculous suggestions & makey uppy nonsense.

Such an exhausting back & fourth with a poster, so abjectly wrong & petulant.

Thankfully you & others clarified matters 😉

Appeal it if you can and what's more go to your local FF or FG TD (do not waste your time on a Green, SF, etc. Most departments are stacked with FF or FG over the decades) and tell them what happened and to champion the appeal for you and how you haven't two Penny's to rub together.

Not even joking, if you can turn on the waterworks it will benefit you a lot too. Also throw in how you always voted him/her and they are the only ones you can turn to, especially with polls at the moment they are nervous.

A quiet word from whatever TDs contact in the department will straighten it out I'll guarantee that. Just make sure to drop in a tub of sweets to the TDs secretary if it gets sorted, keep her sweet if you pardon the pun, as it will be most likely her sorting it. Plus you never know might need their help in future.

You can also go down the local welfare community officer and explain your situation, you had COVID and were trying to do the right thing and not infect anyone especially elderly who would use the PO more and again I stress, the waterworks. They might cut you cheque for something at the very least to keep you going.

Also SVDP would be very helpful if you worried about food, it would be something.

OP has nothing to loose by appealing. It they had signed on, got the payment a, then got covid or other illness the following day , and he unable to look for work or work, there is no way to clawback. So it is possible to be on JSA and not capable of work (due to illness) and not loose the payment

Yes they can claim SWA.

Oh for god's sake some of the "exhausted" over dramatics of posters on this thread need to calm tf down, or go have a nap or something.

They also need to stop behavng as if this board is their personal domain.

The fact is, the OP was denied their payment by an incompetent Officer whom they spoke to for "two minutes". That shouldn't have happened.

Whereas if they had informed INTREO in advance that they could not collect, that would not have happened.

An accommodation would have been made - it would have been held over for a few days at the post office. No changing to another payment. A deciding officer could have authorised this.

Now, funnily enough, when someone else pointed this out, and that post was liked by the very poster who is "so exhausted" at jumping all over me.

And I'm the one being called "petulant"? Talk about dramatics. No matter, it's water off a ducks back to me.

Now, back to the real world.

Oh and one final point - the temporary agent form WAS available for Covid19. Its literally printed on the form I linked too.

You've been handed your Arse & still at this absurd nonsense.

You may disagree with facts but offering factually incorrect information doesn't help the OP.

You claim to have been a Civil servant for 30 years to somehow justify your petulance. Everything with DSP is black & white, a person is entitled to a payment or not.

I've checked my spelling & hope it's up to "you're" exacting standards.

Actual experience. Something you don't have.

Goodbye.

...system goes duh! again....

...best of luck op....