Job seekers allowance- Disclosure
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My partner is post prison sentence and probation. He has started to look for work, we would like to apply for job seekers allowance but are concerned about having to disclose or being sent for inappropriate jobs. We live in a very very small town and the job centre is in that town, so naturally wouldn't want to risk his convictions becoming known, we've moved, changed names etc to avoid this.
Does anyone have any experience in the process, whether he would need to disclose. We are completely unfamiliar with the process for claiming job seeker allowance
Does anyone have any experience in the process, whether he would need to disclose. We are completely unfamiliar with the process for claiming job seeker allowance
I am usure if you have to disclose, but many jobcentres have specialist advisors to help with ex offenders. They help with the gap in their employment record and will be in touch with employers willing to give jobs as well. Even if the jobcentre is in a small place the people working in them are not allowed to tell anyone, and if they do it is a disciplinery offence to do this as it is against the data protection act. So there should be no worry there. Hope this helps.
All I can say is my person disclosed (to avoid being pressured into unsuitable jobs and also to avoid being sanctioned due to them assuming he left his last job for invalid reasons) and he's been supported very sensitively and non judgementally
Just to add, he would need to have been working within the last 2 - 3 years and paying NI contributions to claim new style JSA, otherwise universal credit is the only option which is means tested and would need a joint claim, if a couple
It is important to let the jobcentre know if there are jobs he cannot apply for, but that does not mean going into great detail about his conviction. To be fair the jobcentre staff can probably figure that out for themselves, if someone says they are not allowed to work with children.
If someone is on the SOR and seeing probation then probation should send the jobcentre a MAPPAJ form, which sets out what the persons restrictions are. It will not be discussed directly with the work coach, but it should trigger a marker on the persons file that lets the work coach know their details are sensitive.
If someone is on the SOR and seeing probation then probation should send the jobcentre a MAPPAJ form, which sets out what the persons restrictions are. It will not be discussed directly with the work coach, but it should trigger a marker on the persons file that lets the work coach know their details are sensitive.