Hi I'm a parent (dad) of a nine year old autistic girl and my wife is the main carer for her. I am on job seekers allowance and on the 28 July 2014 me, my wife, my nine year old daughter and my other daughter had a holiday paid for by the family fund to give us a respite holiday to haven. I had told my local jobcentre plus office that I would not be able to look for work or be available to come back as I don't drive from the 28/07/14 to the 01/08/14 as we will be having this respite holiday paid for by a charity, I also filled out there forms, but when I got back from the holiday I have found that they have suspended my JSA payments. I understand that what they say is if you are on JSA then you should not be able to afford a holiday, it would be the same for my family if is wasn't for the family fund payment. I do think that there policy on family holiday for family's with disabled people/carers who get these payments and then they stop the JSA payments is unfair. If you or anyone you know have been in the same situation as me then please leave a message on this site and please feel free to pass this message on.
As the reason is i am speaking to my MP about this and i need to as many names as possible so i can get the legislation changed as this could effect you.
The whole reason is that if you are a Parent or a Carer for someone and then you have been made unemployed and then go onto Jobseekers allowance and you have been givern monie eather through a charity or your local council as direct payments for a holiday eather in this country or abroad,if you are not available to come back you will lose you JSA money as i have.
Thank you
