After-release Check List

OK. you've just got out of an institution of some sort. What do you need to do now to ensure your smooth resettlement back into the mainstream of society?

CHECK-LIST

When	What to do, and where to start
As soon as you are out, or as soon as you are able to after you get out.	Pick up the keys to your flat, (if you've been allocated one) and sign the tenancy agreement forms (and get a couple of copies of them done as you'll need them for various applications, as we'll get on to later). If you have a private landlord, then also pay the rent deposit in addition to the above. Even though you got a grant when you were released to tide you over for the first week, that is only supposed to replace the first weeks Job Seekers Allowance (JSA), and will not include Council Tax Benefit (CTB) or Housing Benefit (HB). You "usually" only become eligible for these other 2 benefits after you have signed on at the job centre for other benefits. The Town Hall should do their own eligibility calculation but are usually too lazy and wait for the DWP to agree that your entitled to other benefits. If they do this, make a complaint, stating that they should be making their own decision in the matter, as it can cause you problems with your landlord if you have to wait for Housing Benefit to be awarded. Don't wait till next week to sign on just because you have some money now. It will take up to a few days if not a week, to get your first benefits payment AFTER you have signed on, and your benefits entitlement will only begin the day you made an application for these benefits such as JSA, HB, and CTB. In this region, you MUST first claim by telephone on 0845 603 2451. You’ll be sent a statement recording the details you've given and an appointment to attend an interview. OR by applying online via the internet at this web address http://www.dwp.gov.uk/eservice/# OR go to the jobcentre at Wyvern House 55 Bromham Road Bedford MK40 2EH Telephone: 01234 361500 73 High Street Biggleswade Bedfordshire SG18 0JH Phone: 01767 275750 and get yourself an interview to be signed on for Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) / Income Support / Incapacity Benefit / Pension Credit. The type of JSA to which you shall be entitled, will be I-JSA (Income based Job Seekers Allowance). Do not rely on the forms used by the job centre (form HCTB1) for Housing Benefit (HB) and Council Tax Benefit (CTB), as Councils who distribute these benefits often refuse to accept these as the proper application forms. You need the forms that the Council itself uses to apply for these 2 benefits, which can be picked up at the town hall and most Housing Associations offices. Make sure you take or send these forms directly to the town hall yourself, along with the other documents they will need as evidence, i.e. :-- the original copies of your tenancy agreement or rent book (evidence of your tenancy and your rent amount); your latest FULL statement from your bank / building society / post office savings account (evidence of your capital); birth certificate, marriage certificate, passport, medical card, NI number card, or driving license, etc.(evidence of your identity); the letter from the DSS that shows your national insurance number or NI number card (evidence of your National Insurance number); If you have a NI number but can’t find it, contact the National Insurance Registration Helpline on 0845 915 7006 and ask for a '*Letter of Confirmation' of your National Insurance number. If you don't have one then write away for one now to :-- Inland Revenue NI Contributions office, General Index, Longbenton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE98-1ZZ If you have time, get a check done on what benefits* to which you are entitled, by the local citizens advice bureau, as you may be entitled to a range of other benefits and tax credits that you are not aware of. When you go to the citizens advice bureau, they will ask you to wait to see an adviser, which may involve a wait of up to an hour or longer (depending on the queue size) - depending on how busy they are and how many voluntary advisers they have available. When you get to see the adviser, you will be asked "how can we help you?" - answer that you need a full benefits and tax credits check done (they have software that will work it out to a T ). If you have a partner and / or children, then the Child Tax Credits (CTC) (and WTC - Working Tax Credits if you've got a job) need to be sorted out now. If you have online access, you can do a check yourself by going to www.entitledto.co.uk and filling out the questionnaire which will calculate your benefits for you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Open a bank or building society account. You'll need one for wages / salary payments, as a lot of companies now will only employ you if they can pay you directly into one of these accounts. Additionally, benefits now have to be paid into accounts, as they are phasing out payments by giro cheque, so you need an account. You can get a leaflet at the Citizens Advice Bureau that lists all the banks and building societies who "say" they will let you open a BASIC account. But the Nationwide Building Society and Barclays bank are the only 2 that will really open a BASIC current account with £1.00, without doing a credit reference check, provided you can show 2 things :- Proof of address - any official paperwork that has been posted to you at your new address, such as utility bills, letters from a solicitor or other official bodies, tenancy agreement, etc. If you are in a hostel of one type or another, you can get a letter from the hostel manager on their headed notepaper which is usually acceptable proof of address; Proof of Identity - a driving license, passport, birth certificate, NHS card, union ID card. If you don't have any of these, then ask at the counter of whichever bank or building society you've chosen, what forms of ID they are willing to accept, as each one has their own set of acceptable forms of ID beyond the usual ones I just listed. And DO explain that you've just got out of prison, as they won't be put off taking you on as a customer. When I did it, I was still in prison (out on home leave) and the Nationwide went right out of their way to find out what they were allowed to accept, because I had almost nothing apart from my parole license, letters from a solicitor, and NHS card (and I was living in the probation hostel so couldn't get any utility bills). But you will need to emphasise that the type of account you want is a BASIC account.
As soon as you have accommodation organised	Do the following :-- arrange for electricity and/or gas to be switched on. Keep a record of the numbers from the meters and send a letter to the utility companies with the meter numbers and ask for an acknowledgement of these, as you may end up paying the last tenants arrears; Get one of those cheap disposable cameras (or borrow an electronic one or a phone that take pictures) and take several shots of EVERY room, (walls, floors, doors, skirting, sinks, taps, cupboards, etc.) as evidence of the condition of the place when you moved into it. Send a copy of these to the landlord and ask for an acknowledgement of them in writing. Keep a copy safe, as there are often disputes about the condition of a place when you move on to somewhere else (better ?) and your deposit is often snatched to "make repairs". With the photo's there's no arguments to worry about (for the price of a couple of CD disks to store them on, it saves a lot of agg later on) stock up on essentials like basic food, toiletries, clothing, sanitary goods, whatever else you need to get by reasonably;
NHS	Sign on with a doctor, optician, and dentist, and get your eyes and teeth checked whilst you're still unemployed (it will save you a lot of money) - click on > local NHS services for your nearest GP surgeries, dental surgeries, opticians, and NHS walk-in centres for emergencies, etc.
Organise the funding you will need	Have you got a list of the things you now need, such as :-- clothing and footwear; furniture; fixtures and fittings; utensils; pots and pans; beds and bedding; driving license; kitchen white goods (cooker, fridge/freezer, washing machine/dryer, etc); education and training; If not, then start making one now, and get it costed, i.e., use things like mail order catalogs to get the prices of the items you need, and apply those prices to your list before you start applying for funding. Make an application for a Community Care Grant (CCG) from the JobCentre for ALL of your main needs that at are necessities (i.e. Kitchen white goods, bed(s), other household essentials, clothing, work tools, etc). This webpage on the JobCentres own site gives you information regarding Community Care Grants. A word of warning - although they will tell you at the JobCentre that there is no limitation on what you can apply for and that you can apply for as much "as you need" - it's bullshit. They have a limit on their software that restricts you to applying for 36 items. So make sure you apply for the large expensive items first, like the bed and mattress, cooker, fridge/freezer, wardrobe + chest of drawers. To give you an idea of the amounts you should be applying for, here a partial reasonable list :-- Fridge with 2* Freezer (incl. delivery) - £160 - or Freezer (including delivery) - £160 - or Fridge/Freezer (including delivery) - £220 Electric Cooker (inc. delivery & installation) - £300 - or Gas Cooker (inc delivery & installation) - £300 (if you live in a flat, you need a cooker with a flame failure supervision device fitted Microwave - £60 - or Microwave with Grill - £50 - or Microwave with convection - £90 Single Bed (including delivery) - £150 - or Double Bed (including delivery) - £200 Vacuum Cleaner - £70 Chest of drawers (for the bedroom) - £60 Wardrobe (for the bedroom) - £80 Table and a couple of chairs to eat off of - £100 Job interview suit - £120 if you are young(ish), and / or relatively healthy, and live near a launderette, the DWP / JobCentre are unlikely to fund either of these next items from CCG's, but you can then get it funded by the likes of the Glasspool Trust or the House of Industry Trust Fund - details of each are on the Trust Funds page (under the Money button above) Sofa - £250 Carpets (including fitting) - £7.00 per square metre Washing Machine (including delivery) - £240 - Washer/Dryer (including delivery) - £350 Tumble Dryer (including delivery) - £150 Take a look at the funding button above to get the details of where you can apply for funding for the various things you need. The best option here if you have little or no money of your own, is to make an application to the Glasspool Trust (see the info on this in the Money --> Trust Funds page) who have a system set up with Comet and other stores (to have white goods such as Cooker, Fridge/Freezer, Washer/Dryer, beds, table/chairs, basic other furniture, etc) to deliver directly to your home and fitted in. They rarely give out money, but when they do, it has to be sent to the "responsible person" who has endorsed your application to them. Another good source is the Anglian Water Trust Fund which funds a lot more than most people think. See the sample application to them in the Funding Pages. I'll put up some samples of good and bad applications, so that you can have a chance in making grant applications.
CV and work	Get yourself a CV / Resume' made up and get several photocopies of it (the jobcentre will often do this for your for nothing). For job applications, it can be a great help if it's well laid out. There is an example of a reasonably well laid out CV / resume' here. The simple rules of making one of your own are :-- don't use more than 2 pages of A4 for it; don't try to cram too much information onto it (observe "Occams Razor" - i.e., give only as much info as you need to get the message across, but also keeping it as simple as it is possible to do, will generally be the best solution ) ;
Your relationship	Give a bit of thought to how much independence your partner has developed whilst you were away. I say this because a hell of a lot of people (mainly guys) come out of prison and expect their relationship to carry on just the way it was before they went into prison (i.e. where they were ruling the roost and were the head of the house). But whilst you've been away, your partner has had to deal with everything that has been a problem, without any help from you (and probably no help from just about anyone else), so they have become independent and cannot just accept that you are coming on the scene and taking over everything. This leads to a LOT of emotional upheaval and arguments that (more often than not) ends up with the relationship falling apart. So be prepared to be diplomatic and to compromise on what your partners lifestyle has become. Things are NOT going to be the same.
Disclosure of your criminal record	You will also need a disclosure letter for those companies that ask about your criminal record, but you only have to disclose it if you are asked for it. If you are not asked, then don't disclose it until the people you work for and with, have had a bit of time to get to know you, (if you then want to disclose your record to them at all - it's your* choice). That way, they are less inclined to be judgmental about you as a result of what their perceptions would have been if they had made a judgment about you before they knew you. Here is an example of my own disclosure letter :-- Name Address To whom it may concern - Re: criminal convictions Dear Sir / Madam, In respect of my application to work for the company you represent, I am duty bound to inform you that I have a criminal record, for offences that happened from 1971 – to – 1980, ( i.e. when I was 17 years old, up till I was 25 years old* ). Those offences ranged from taking vehicles without the owners consent, to burglary of chemist shops during the years (72 – 77) when I was abusing various drugs, attempted robbery and wounding a police officer with intent to resist arrest (1980) during that robbery. For that last offence, I was sentenced to life imprisonment, as a result of which, I am on parole for the rest of my natural life. I have not been involved in drug taking or criminal offending since that time, nor have I the intention to do so in the future. Because of the life sentence parole issue, it would be a new criminal offence for me to withhold that information from you, hence my disclosure herein. I would hope that you could take the view that my criminal past was a phase I went through in my youth, and that it should not be an automatic bar to my being considered for the post for which I am applying now. If you have any concerns arising from this issue, I will be happy to discuss the matter at interview. Yours sincerely, Signed: Dated:

© Researched, designed and built by Stuart Blackstock 2002 - 2011