This site is an archive of the OneSpace Forums. Return to forum index.
This site is an archive of the OneSpace Forums. Return to forum index.
Hello chaps!
Is there any sort of official stand point on signing on if your child is unwell and you have no one to look after them.
I'm on JSA my children are eight and ten, I live just under an hour away by bus from my JSA office my son just got home from hospital after being curcumsised, he can't realy walk, not without pain anyway.
I have to sign on tomorrow, and then on Friday I have my byweekly pointless interview with working links, this is an hour and a half away by bus and involves two buses and not only that it will cost me eleven pounds in bus fares for the both of us on both days... so that's twenty two pounds! (working links will give me back my bus fare but not my sons)
Is there some sort of ruling I can call them up and mention... I'm not so worried about Working Links, my advisor is quite nice and has allowed me to cancel an appointment before when my son had to go into hospital to be looked at.
I normaly cycle to sign on to save me the six pound fourty bus fare but I can't expect my son to do that with me in his present state in this weather, he complained enough last summer when it was lovely and hot : )
Any help?
Thanx : )
Thanx...
I've actualy got my nephew to agree to come round and look after him for a couple of hours while I go in : )
Later.
Hello :-)
I'm glad you've got things sorted.
I hope you're doing ok...
We are thanx : )
I'd still like to know where I stand though, I'd be in trouble if my nephew wasn't about.
Later.
Hey bubblegum, lovely to see you. 
I am glad that you have been able to get your nephew to look after your eldest, that is a weight off, however I am not sure about the answer to your question, I will direct our Parliamentary officer to this thread and see what she says.
Perhaps you can ask your advisor tomorrow and see what they say and then we can see if it tallies up with what our adviser says. It would be good to know.
I hope your son is up and about and feeling better soon.
How are you enjoying Working Links, you say that they are pointless interviews, what are you doing with them? Are they trying to help you find work or upgrade your skills?
Working Links!
It is two bus rides away which takes me around one hour thirty five minuits and costs six pounds forty. When I get there I sit at a computer log into jobsearch direct and look for some jobs, exactly what I do every day at home. My advisor comes over and chats with me for about ten minutes, not particularly about jobs, just chats. I then get my travel expences returned and then I spend another two hours wating around for and catching public transport home.
I've been doing that since last august... except when it's been hot and then I've gone on my bike.
I did get a suit and some new shoes.
Asking my JSA advisor is pointless as they don't know much and what they do know is often contrary to what the person sat in their seat the next week knows... every week it seems I have to remind them that I'm a single parent and have two children to look after.
Later : )
Hello Bubblegum and good to see you 
The Working Links thing sounds completely unproductive and pointless.
Are you still doing your work at the school?
Hopefully our Parliamentary Officer will be able to get back to you shortly about your query.
I do still do the odd day here and there at my local school, I went to the Panto at christmas with them which was fun and I read on friday afternoons with years three and four.
: )
Did you shout out all the corny things at the panto? I love them but my children are too old to take and I no longer run a parent and pre schoolers group as I used to, when I would wheedle free tickets for us all in exchange for us agreeing to be photographed in the theatre foyer looking all poor and needy 
Bubblegum,
You make an interesting point about attendance at Jobcentre Plus when your child is unwell. I am following up with policy bods at the DWP so that I can give you the chapter and verse about what Jobcentre Plus should advise. I will post on the forum as soon as I hear back. I am glad that your nephew could step in on this occasion but it would be good to know for the future (and to let other parents know where they stand).
It is really important that Jobcentre Plus and any services undertaken on their behalf take account of the needs of single parents and their children. There is provision to protect the well-being of children in the welfare legislation (Section 31 of Welfare Act). As I say I will get back to you as soon as I hear from the DWP.
All the best to you and I hope your son is feeling better.
Laura
Thank you.
I think the way things are now, at least from my own experience is that once you come off Income Support and go onto JSA... it's hard to put into words but basicaly you are no longer realy seen as a single parent, there don't seem to be any clearly defined rules that my local job center nor working links are aware of anyway.
Everytime some sort of 'thing' decision, idea that they have, something that someone somewhere (that has no idea what being a single parent entails) thinks up, that is going to help me back into work, something that you must do either at the Job Center or with working links... I keep having to remind them that I have children, that they need picking up from school and beeing taken to school, I have to look after them at weekends and evening and holidays. They don't stop to think that I don't have a car, that I live in a very rural area that getting anywhere costs me six pounds fourty and takes between an hour and two hours on buses.
But blah... it's not their problem.
: )
Later and thank you!
Bubblegum
Just because you have transferred to Jobseekers Allowance the 'Lone Parent Flexibilities' should be open to you. I wrote a short guide on these http://www.onespace.org.uk/benefits/new-guidance-help-single-parents-job...
If you do not have access to a printer I am happy to put a copy in the post (do a request by email do not put your personal details on the forum - my email L.dewar@spanuk.org.uk). These flexibilities are about you and the well-being of your children. At SPAN the charity that runs One Space we campaign about these flexibilities and the DWP being more proactive in letting parents know about them.
In the meantime ask the Jobcentre if you can have access to their flexible fund to pay your travel costs both to the Jobcentre and when you go to Working Links (esp in terms of not being able to cycle when you are with your children). If you dont have much joy with your adviser at sign on (they are often assistant advisers) ask to speak to a Lone Parent Adviser or if they do not have one of them an adviser (some Jobcentres have general advisers but they should have training in provisions made for single parents).
Good luck and let me know how you get on.
Laura
Its all so frustrating isn't it bubblegum, I think so many parents raising their children on their own feel like you do, that once you are onto JSA you are no longer seen as a parent, but a product that needs deleting from file.
It is a lot of time and money that you have to devote to getting yourself to these appointments, such a shame that you are getting very little out of it.
Keep your chin up and we will keep fighting the cause.
Thanx chaps : )
I've read that new guide, or something similar on here a few months ago... I used the information I discovered when they tried to change my work seekers agreament a few months ago.
: )
I can get it printed out no probelm by emaling it to my sister : )
I dont have to pay for my travel to working links they refund my bus fare to me when I get there.
: )
Anna!
| a product that needs deleting from file
That made me chuckle : )
great to see you still smiling bubblegum!
How are your two? Getting older and wiser every day I guess?!
Are you still the upbeat man that we all know and love?
Yes I'm still that happy positive chap stuck in a kafkaesque nightmare: )
And yes they already know better than me, my son does anyway, my daughter still thinks I'm amazing but I do have this nagging suspission that it's all just a cleverly acted ruse to pull the wool over my eyes and manipulate me with her demure manner.
I'm better at saying no to my son than my daughter... something my son never fails to notice : )
I did just two days ago at the dinner table say to him... "Get your feet off that chair and sit up straight" And I thought imediatly afterwards, Noooooooo! I've become my mum : ( In my defence though he was slouching with his legs extended under the table with his feet resting on the chair opposit, while eating a danish puff paistry thing... crumbs flying everywhere, all over him and all over the floor! And I thought, I'm going to have to clean that up now.
They don't think do they!
The buggers : )
I love them... unfortunatly they know this and use it to their advantage : )
(Spelling!)
Ahh bubblegum it is good to hear you, your stories brighten my day!
Glad to hear that your daughter is learning how to use her womanly ways! 
Whether that is because she is being raised by a male her abilities are heightened or she is just incredibly bright and has learned how to stand her stead with you boys around who knows!
It sounds as though all is good at home.
I had to look up kafkaesque though, never heard of that word before. Regarding the meaning of kafkaesque - as described by Wikipedia, which are you:
a) Marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity?
or
b) Marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger?
or
c) In the manner of something written by Franz Kafka?
c) was the one I was going for : )
From wikipedia on Franz Kafka's book 'The Castle'...
"Dark and at times surreal, the novel is focused on alienation, bureaucracy, the semingly endless frustrations of man's attempts to stand against the system, and the futile and hopless pursuit of an unobtainable goal"
: )
That has always been my understanding of kafkaesqu...
...You know, from my hanging about with intalectuals during my univercity years, back in the day, wearing a cord jacket and smoking cigaretts in the SU bar talking polotics and reading Socialist Worker... and Kafka of course
Please don't tell me you have ditched your cord jacket!!!???
I studied a Kafka book at Uni, "The Trial" I was interested in those Wiki definitions as I did not realise there was that element of threat, I always thought of it as a vicious circle of frustration and contradictions, with a large serving of the absurd, like that novel he wrote when he wakes up one morning and finds he has turned into a beetle!
Bubblegum
The DWP have come back with a vague answer. If someone's child is ill on the day of signing then they said you should check with your adviser at the Jobcentre or Work Programme Provider to say that they are unable to attend and then it will be up to the Adviser whether it is reasonable. I have got back to say this uncertainty is not very helpful. I know from my own children that when you are knee deep in your child's sick the last thing you want to do is negotiate with someone who might not have kids whether or not you can attend a meeting! I fear that the current adviser discretion means that child's illness and attendence at job centres will be dealt with on a case by case basis. I think that this is a potential threat to children's well-being (which should be protected). It would be really useful if single parents could let me know about the experience of dealing with Jobcentres (or other organisations that they refer you to) in relation to children's attendence when they are ill. I hope to put this issue to the Minister at the DWP responsible for single parents in a Parliamentary Question (I will be approaching an MP about doing this). Evidence of your experiences would be really helpful.
Laura
|The DWP have come back with a vague answer!
Ha ha : )
Sounds about right.
Since the introduction of all the online Universal Jobmatch looking for work thing... one 'front line staff' person tells me to nolonger fill out the old paper form showing my efforts to find work... and then when I get the other one the following fortnight he tells me no! Do still fill it in and bring it in and then when I get the other one again... he tells me not to bother : ) and it has gone back and forth like that since Univercal Jobmatch™ was introduced last month, or when ever, just recently, I can't remember, it's all a blur!
Working links are very reasonable and flexible with me, or have been anyway, and it's not like my local job center staff are difficult or anything, they are generaly quite plesant, they are just trying their hardest to not let me see that they see me as workshy benefit scrounging scum : )
Hi Bubblegum. Lovely to 'see' you. I would think under the circumstances, they could let you off with the signing for a week or so. Give your advisor a ring though and explain it to them. If needed, you could always get a note from your GP. I hope your son is soon up and about without so much discomfort. xx