Not vey impressed with InTouch

[psychocandy]

Regardless of the rights or wrongs and morality, what I don't get is why anyone would expect their accountant to advise them on JSA. Why do you not just go to the Job Centre and ask your questions? Most of what you need to know is on the web anyway and for edge cases, there are plenty of numbers to call if you can't find your way to the JC.

Then to compound the laziness, people come here complaining because their accountant didn't deliver their dole money on time. Sheesh.

Yeh right. Jobcentre won't have a clue what you're on about.

Why can't accountant advise on things like making yourself redundant/laid off?

NixonWilliams certainly came good for me.

[psychocandy]

Shall I just say some of the points above are wrong and leave it at that.

You won't have a problem if you do it once. Return visits could be a very different experience

Return visits to Job centre?

I've claimed twice in last 4 years. Once for two weeks, once for 3.5 months.

[psychocandy]

I think this FACT is wrong.

Why is it wrong? Contribution based is just that - dependent on NI contributions and not income of yourself or partner.

[psychocandy]

...



Paying the aforementioned dividend might though.

Debatable. After all, you could own barclays shares and get a dividend of £20 and Im pretty sure it wont affect your right to claim JSA.

I've never done it though just in case....

[psychocandy]

Contributions JSA is claimable for 6 months.

The main reason to claim it is that it can be a gateway benefit to other things.

An accountant would not be able to advise you on this but one of the many charities around who deal with it would.

However the Job Centre may force you to attend work based activity during that time - depends where you live on the likelihood of that.

Is it 6 months now? I might be wrong then.

Nah. The policy is to leave you alone for 3 months minimum to try and do what you normally do.

Yes, you do have to go for an initial interview a few weeks after you start claiming. Not a problem - on the most part the people are sensible and let you get on with it. They wont come up with stupid things like you have to check the job boards etc. I found the staff ok - they seem ok to people who are polite to them and honest - possibly because they spend 99% of their time hassling scrotes to get off their backsides.

Remember the advisors job is to get you back into work. Letting you sort yourself out is often the best bet.

[GillsMan]

Complete crock of tulipe. Ethically- puleaze you'll be telling me to drive an electric car to save the pandas next.

Technically you can do it. Yes I claim when I can. Do I care what others on here think - nope, I care more what my cat thinks about me.....

Spoke to your cat. He thinks YANCOTBAC. HTH.

[TheFaQQer]

Why can't accountant advise on things like making yourself redundant/laid off?

They can. And InTouch do.

It's a matter of the questions that are asked, eg:

Q: can I lay myself off in between contracts?
A: Yes

vs

Q: Can I lay myself off in between contracts and claim JSA?
A:You can lay yourself off, but I don't know about JSA because I'm an accountant, not someone who professes knowledge of the benefits system.

vs

Q: Can I claim JSA?
A: I don't know because I'm an accountant, not someone who professes knowledge of the benefits system.

If you expect your accountant to know everything about what benefits you can claim, then you are likely to be disappointed in the long run.

[mudskipper]

Why is it wrong? Contribution based is just that - dependent on NI contributions and not income of yourself or partner.

It's been 6 months for as long as I remember. Certainly since 2009 when I was finding out about it as employee rep for redundancies.

[northernladuk]

OP is calling his accountant out and then asks them if he can claim part of his caravan stay. Me thinks it's not the accountant that is at fault here... Unless they are deliberately trying to get him to leave because not all customers are good customers.

http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...y-expense.html

[new2c]

Thanks NLUK for bumping this thread.

All my points are valid,

(1) It is not unreasonable to expect your accountant to claim a certain refund for you if you have already pointed it out to them and agreed with them. If they fail to do it even after this then will you be happy?

(2) It is not unreasonable to expect them to send out regular payslips especially if it was agreed at the very start. I never received it unless I asked for it. I pointed this out but no improvement after that.

(3) It is not unreasonable to expect them to provide a service which they advertise openly on their website as part of the monthly package. This is the blurb from their website:

IR35 - contract risk assessment - FREE as part of monthly service

An IR35 contract risk assessment will help contractors better understand their employment status and assess the risk of being deemed as a disguised employee and, therefore, within IR35. We will undertake an IR35 risk assessment for all monthly clients, upon request, as part of your monthly fee and will provide practical suggestions to help you stay on the right side of this issue.

(4) It is not unreasonable to expect them to give you the correct facts, about laying off yourself in between contracts and about the P45 to be issues and manual adjustments of the payroll. I had long discussions about this with them multiple times. I never asked them about how to claim JSA or am I eligible or not. I just told that I intend not to draw any salary next month and will claim JSA, and I was told "it gets very messy" or "as a company director you can't do that".
Again, I don't expect them to give me details about JSA eligibility or pensions or mortgages.
It felt as if they can't be arsed to even manipulate payroll data.