Themas, no offence bt I know a wee bit more abut this than you do.
When a claimant says they have been dismissed, the Jobcentre send a form to the former employer asking for more information about the incident leading to dismissal and once the reply is received, a referral to a Labour Market Decision Maker (LMDM) is made.
The LMDM may contact the employer for further information and the claimant MUST then be given the chance to comment on what all the employer has said. The LMDM then makes a decision based only upon the evidence and it is up to the employer to show there was misconduct, it is not for the claimant to show there was no misconduct.
You see then, the Jobcentre does not make the sanction decision.
With regard to the deduction for the period between the employment ending and the date of claim, that is correct. A sanction is to stop payment of JSA from National Insurance funds. If someone delays making a claim and the claim is not backdated, in effect they have imposed a period of not receiving benefit so it would be unfair to punish them twice for that period.
If it worked the way you think it does, the person could still be employed and receiving pay while the employer made investigations and then go on to receive full JSA. Where is the logic in that?
JSA carries on in payment until the Decision Maker decides there was misconduct and the sanction takes effect from the day after the JSA has been paid up to.
I must point out the fact that even if an Employment Tribunal agrees there has been an unfair dismissal, that does not prevent a Decision Maker saying there was misconduct. This is because they look at different things, there may have been misconduct but the employer may not have followed the correct dismissal procedures for example.
Tax Credits, Housing Benefit and Coucil Tax Benefits are means tested so unless a claimant is receiving Income Based JSA there is no automatic entitlement to Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit.
Hardship Payments (not to be confused wi Social Fund payments) may be made and that decision IS made by the Jobcentre.