On average how long does it take for Jobseekers allowance to be processed

A question about : On average how long does it take for Jobseekers allowance to be processed

Hello

My OH was made redundant before xmas and his last day is today. He was given 6 weeks notice which he has now worked.
He will receive the statutory 6 weeks redundancy pay (as he worked for the company for 6 years - so 1 weeks pay per year)

A couple questions:

When do we call the benefits office to organise jobseekers allowance? Are we entitled to JSA straight away if he is going to get basic redundancy pay? (he will be claiming contribution based JSA)

Once he calls, how long on average does the claim take to go through?

Also can he claim Housing and Council Tax benefit straight away? or again can he only do so after 6 weeks (as that is how much his redundancy pay is based on)

Hope this all makes sense!

Many thanks

Best answers:

• https://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTax...rk/DG_10018757
  My o/h rang 0800 055 6688 the day after she lost her job. They did a lot of the paperwork on the phone taking about 20 minutes. And then arranged a local meeting 3 days later at the job centre to sign things, confirm one or two things. 2 weeks later we received the contributions assessment confirming JSA. And we got a payment for part of the week about a week later. So overall not too bad.
  Can't comment on HB CTB as we didnt claim for this.
• my oh was made redundant towards the end of November. he applied for JSA online the day he finished work. The phoned him the day after to ask some more questions and to arrange his interview - which was the following day.
  All in all the application process was really quick - unfortunately, the payments weren't! He phoned them at the end of December and was told it was an 8 stage application process and he was at stage 7 and that once he'd signed on again in January this would kick start his payments First payment received mid January wasn't all of the back pay they owed either he had to wait until he'd signed on again to get that so all together about 6 weeks before he got any money in the bank!
• Can you apply in advance, whilst working out your notice?
  ie, I have a meeting today to come to a "final decision" about my employment. I will get 5 weeks notice and 5 weeks pay. So can I apply tomorrow for JSA?
  And can I claim contributions based JSA and my OH claim income based JSA at the same time? (I know they will reduce the money received but if I claim, I get my national insurance contributions paid and if OH claims he may be able to get the CSA reduced (he's self employed and I understand they go by last years tax return unless you are on benefits).
• If OH is self employed, do they ask how much he has earned this year in total or does it only matter what he is earning this minute?
  His work has dropped dramatically this month so he's now only got 2 hours work a week
• Hope my case was unusual, but it took them 6 months to finally sort my payments. Me going abroad on holiday complicated things. I had to sign-off, but their "rapid restart" procedure wasn't that rapid. In addition to that, my allowance was turned down 3 times:
  1. Their records showed no NIC had been paid. I had to produce P60s to prove their records were wrong.
  2. As I hadn't produced info re "actual" occupational pension received. I could only do this when I had "actually" received something.
  3. As my pension was too high? The figure used in the rejection bore no resemblance to anything I'd declared.
  I gave up corresponding with them and thought a formal appeal might speed things up. It didn't.
  When I finally started to receive JSA, they overlooked my arrears for the period before the Restart claim. I did finally get my allowance, but it was hard work.