JCP is a government-funded organisation that supports people looking for work. You might have signed up with JCP before meeting your STEP Employment Adviser. If not, let your Employment Adviser know and they will help you sign up.

JCP should:

• Provide you with a work coach who will support you until you find a job

• Let you know about suitable job vacancies

• Give you opportunities to do free training courses

• Help you access additional funding through the Flexible Support Fund if you need financial support in finding a job (e.g. travelling to interviews, tools, clothes to wear for an interview)

• Give you access to a Jobcentre Plus Travel Discount Card

• Signpost you to other local organisations who may be able to support you in other areas of your life (learning English, helping in the community, social activities)

Interpreters should be available (in person or by telephone), but you may need to request them in advance

Some of the support provided by your JCP work coach will be similar to that provided by your STEP Employment Adviser. However, your STEP Employment Adviser:

• Is also able to help you with all the items listed at the beginning of the handbook

• Will be able to provide you with more time and attention

• Has more in-depth knowledge and experience of working with people from refugee backgrounds

• Has access to specialised resources and materials to help support you

• Can refer you to trusted partner organisations for specific training and workshops

However, your STEP Employment Adviser does not have any control over your benefits.

When you sign up with JCP, they will ask you to sign a “Claimant Commitment”.

This is a record of the responsibilities you agree to take on in return for receiving benefits.

Your Claimant Commitment will depend on your personal circumstances, including childcare responsibilities, caring responsibilities, and any health issues.

The Claimant Commitment could cover meetings with your work coach, spending a minimum number of hours per week searching for a job, or attending college for a certain number of hours.

In general, JCP will expect you to do everything you can to find work and increase your earnings.

In most cases, you will be expected to accept any job you are offered. If you don’t want to, you must talk to your work coach and explain why not.

You must also tell your work coach if your circumstances change, for example, if you get a new job. If you do not tell your work coach when you get a job, you are breaking your commitment and may have your benefits stopped.

Starting work does not necessarily mean your benefits stop, and in almost all cases you are better off working. It is also very common for people to be working and receive benefits at the same time.

Most contact with your work coach will take place online. You will be given a digital work journal which you will be expected to update on a regular basis to show your progress.

The welfare system is paid for by public taxes. Everybody who has a job in the UK and earns over a certain amount of money is required to pay tax to the government. More information about tax, including the exact amount you are required to pay, is shown later in the handbook.