JSA Form Questions

Hi there,

Apologies if this is answered elsewhere but I can't seem to find answers that make sense to me. Basically I've been on JSB for the past while & have just received a letter from the Dept of SW telling me that my benefit is due to run out & that I need to fill out the enclosed form to apply for JSA. Fair enough, I was expecting that eventually anyway.

However, there's some parts of the form that are a bit confusing so was wondering if someone could clarify them (again, apologies if these are stupid questions but just want to absolutely sure of where I stand).

Firstly, they're asking me for details of other people in my "household", including occupation & income. I live in private rented accomodation, sharing a house with several other people, none of whom are my dependants & whom I am certainly not a dependant of. Would my housemates be included in my "household" or does the word just refer to me personally in this case. I've found redundancy stressful & humiliating enough without having to ask my housemates to supply personal details like this for my benefit. Don't see why that should have any bearing on my own assessment for JSA. Have I misunderstood the meaning of "household" or are the Dept of SW just a bunch of *******s in that regard?

Secondly, in a related issue, the form asks me what my monthly rent is. Does that mean the share of the rent that I personally pay each month or the total monthly rent paid on the house (two very different figures)?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated as I'm quite worried about what to do. Thanks a mill!

The form is a generic form and the 'household' question really relates to family in case that income needs to be assessed. You should list your flatmates and put 'not known' beside income if need be; it won't be assessed anyway and the person looking at the form will see immediately your situation. The other reason for this question is that, if any of your flatmates were also on Sw, adn in receipt of a Fuel Allowance then this measn you would not get it also; only one is payable to any household.
You should put down your share of the rent as 'rent payable'.

P. S. I don't really see why you need to hit out at Dept. of Sw as a bunch of *******s just becuase you have to complete a form that is designed to cover 100% of claimants and glean as comprehensive a profile of your situation as possible.

Thanks for the response. Not sure if "unknown" would be acceptable to them though or if they would insist that I quiz my flatmates on their incomes before accepting my claim. I would find having to do so extremely humiliating & if that is the case I think I'm perfectly entitled to hit out at them. Surely it should be just enough to have a box you could tick if you're in private rented accomodation & don't have dependants. I'm very reluctant to just assume that the person assessing the form will see my situation without being sure of it.

The reality is you have no choice in the matter – it’s either fill the form in & have your application considered, or don’t bother.

There is no point in stressing yourself out over this. It would be in your interest to do as Welfarite suggests. You could attach a cover note explaining your situation further. Rest assured if DSFA have any questions/queries on your application they will contact you for clarification/further details.

Papercut said:

The reality is you have no choice in the matter – it’s either fill the form in & have your application considered, or don’t bother.

There is no point in stressing yourself out over this. It would be in your interest to do as Welfarite suggests. You could attach a cover note explaining your situation further. Rest assured if DSFA have any questions/queries on your application they will contact you for clarification/further details.

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I understand the form has to be filled in just trying to clarifiy what my exact obligations are. I really don't understand what my flatmate's incomes have to do with anything, I'm not going to be claiming fuel allowance or anything like that. Really don't want to go into the details of my financial situation with them as think it's my own business. I've no problem with supply SW with any financial information of my own (bank statements, etc) but really think that asking me to grill other people who won't be impacted by my claim is a bit much.

SW are not interested in your flatmates income, household means spouse/partner/children/family etc.

Magpie said:

SW are not interested in your flatmates income, household means spouse/partner/children/family etc.

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Are you sure? The last time I filled out a census form I was also living in shared rented accomodation & there was just one form for the house ("household") so assumed "household" had the same definition in this case.

If you look at the application form you will see a column ''relationship to you''. If you have no family or romantic (as in a spouse/partner) relationship with the people named you put ''None’’ or ''Housemate''. In the income column put ''N/A'' or ''not known''. In the occupation column state the occupation or ''employed'' or ''unemployed''.

Don’t worry about census forms, they are used for an entirely different purpose - just fill in the JA form truthfully & you will have nothing to worry about.