In most cases, the client must have been getting a qualifying benefit and received at least six payments for a period of six months before the date of their job offer to get Job Start Payment.
If a client was on one of the qualifying benefits for five months and three weeks, they would not meet the conditions of Job Start Payment and their application would be rejected.
The client must have been on one or a combination of:
The most important information for qualifying benefit awards is the award start date and end date. If the end date is before the job offer date, the client will be ineligible to get Job Start Payment.
A client on either of these benefits at the time of their job offer does not qualify for Job Start Payment.
They need to be on an income-based Job Seekers Allowance or Employment Support Allowance at the time of their job offer.
The client can be on a contribution-based award for part of their six months qualifying benefit history but has to have moved to an income-based benefit by the time of their job offer.
This qualifying benefit is a payment given based on ‘assessment periods’ where a check is made on the client’s personal circumstances.
In most cases a client must have been given six payments of Universal Credit before they qualify for Job Start Payment. A backdated award may be paid in fewer instalments. In which case, care should be taken to verify the start and end date of the award.
A payment of £0 is still a valid award and is counted as one of the six payments.
If the client has moved to Universal Credit from a legacy benefit, such as Income Support or Employment and Support Allowance, there may be a gap between the end date and start date.
In most cases, this will be due to the initial Universal Credit assessment period.
If this is less than five weeks, then you are allowed to waive this gap, as long as they were on Universal Credit at the time of their job offer.
If the gap between start and end dates is significantly larger, then you should consult with your manager before continuing.
You should check which benefits the client is getting.
If the client has more than one benefit over a period of 6 months, you can take all of them into account to make up the 6 month rule.
For example, if they were on Universal Credit for 4 months and Job Seeker's Allowance for 2 months, you can count this as 6 months of benefits.
If there are multiple qualifying benefits for the client over the 6 month period, you should record them all.
If you have one benefit that makes up the entire 6 months, you just need to record the details for that one.
If the client has a child responsibility benefit, there will need to be a separate verification.
The client may be getting a benefit through a joint claim with their partner. A person record for the partner will have been created, if they have said this on their application.
If the client does not get benefits but their partner does, they would not be able to get Job Start Payment, as this is not a joint claim.
Once you have all the qualifying benefit details evidence for the client, you can finish completing the rest of the evidences and verifications.