Contacting the client

If you are not able to verify client eligibility, you need to ask them for evidence of:

• a job offer
• the client living in Scotland at the time of their job offer
• the client’s identity
• child responsibility
• the client’s qualifying benefit history
• care leaver status

Clients can give us this information:

• through the Document Upload portal
• by sending us photocopies
• by sending us original documents which we will scan and return to them by recorded delivery (it can take up to 31 days to return these)

Clients should send evidence to Social Security Scotland at:

Job Start Payment
PO Box 10314
Dundee
DD1 9GP

We do not need to ask care leavers to send in the care leaver evidence form, if they’ve already met the all the standard conditions for Job Start Payment.

Call the client

You must identify any accessibility needs the client might have before the call.

Try to call them three times within 24 hours at different times of the day.

If the client answers the call

You should:

• ask them for the evidence needed
• make sure they understand what is needed and how they can give us this information

Send a letter

If you are not able to reach the client by phone, send a letter requesting any outstanding evidence.

If the client does not provide evidence within 14 days

You can:

• call the client and then check back in 7 calendar days to check we’ve got the evidence

Giving more time to provide evidence

The client might tell you that:

• they’re having difficulty obtaining the evidence
• the evidence will be available within the next week

This means you can give them more time to send the evidence but it should be no longer than 28 calendar days from when it was first requested.

If you want to extend the time more, your team manager must approve this.

If the client does not provide the evidence, they will not be able to pass the eligibility check.