Jobseekers Allowance Refused If You've Been Doing Seasonal Work

amber1818

Can anyone give me any advice please..I live in holiday town where there is very little permanant employment and there are alot of people who,like myself, in the the attempt to get off benefits..ie job seekers alowance..take on seasonal work which usualy lasts from March to Oct. This isnt because we dont want to work all year, its a case of working when you can. I was finished from my job at the end of Oct and now very worried and upset to find that I am not allowed and benefits purely because I've done seasonal work. It seems theres a new legislation out. Seasonal woerkers are supposed to 'save up' during the summer to last through winter.If your total hours of working for 7 months or so are divided by 52 weeks come to more than 16 hrs a week you cannot claim anything. I only worked part time (24-28) and mine averaged out to something like 18...how can you be expected to save up on part time work? No one was aware of this situation until they went to the jobcenter.Apparently we cant claim anything else so where do we get money from to buy food and pay gas/elec and general household bills. What makes matters worse is the fact that theres people that have been signing on all summer, no intention of finding work and blagging the way out of it and they can still sign on and get their money as normal. It seems we are being penalised for going out to work when there is some available. I am a respectable middle aged single woman who is willing to work and now at my wits end with worry. My MP is aware of the problem but that doesnt put food on the table....has anyone come across this before and can anyone give me some advice...thanks

building

tried calling up another job centre to find out what they say. i find that depending on the person you get on the phone you get different info!
also there are some jobs you can get by doing work on or through the internet - maybe that is an option for the winter season. just a thought. maybe you could post another message asking people's ideas on this?good luck either way.

amber1818 wrote:

Can anyone give me any advice please..I live in holiday town where there is very little permanant employment and there are alot of people who,like myself, in the the attempt to get off benefits..ie job seekers alowance..take on seasonal work which usualy lasts from March to Oct. This isnt because we dont want to work all year, its a case of working when you can. I was finished from my job at the end of Oct and now very worried and upset to find that I am not allowed and benefits purely because I've done seasonal work. It seems theres a new legislation out. Seasonal woerkers are supposed to 'save up' during the summer to last through winter.If your total hours of working for 7 months or so are divided by 52 weeks come to more than 16 hrs a week you cannot claim anything. I only worked part time (24-28) and mine averaged out to something like 18...how can you be expected to save up on part time work? No one was aware of this situation until they went to the jobcenter.Apparently we cant claim anything else so where do we get money from to buy food and pay gas/elec and general household bills. What makes matters worse is the fact that theres people that have been signing on all summer, no intention of finding work and blagging the way out of it and they can still sign on and get their money as normal. It seems we are being penalised for going out to work when there is some available. I am a respectable middle aged single woman who is willing to work and now at my wits end with worry. My MP is aware of the problem but that doesnt put food on the table....has anyone come across this before and can anyone give me some advice...thanks

CIS

THis may shed some light

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=1834&mesg_id=1834&listing_type=&page=

If you have a regular cycle of seasonal employment then you can be denied, its apparently not a new rule, its just being interpereted differently.

Apparently it was aimed at oil workers and fishermen who 2 weeks on and 2 off, it was to stop then cliaming in between working periods.

black-saturn

See if you can claim income support instead.

amber1818

Hi all...thanks for messages. Checked out the rightsnet thing and I'm in the east lindsay area that the main post is from on there. I'm wondering if this is a national problem or regional. Told today that you cant claim income support, hardship allowance or anything else for that matter. Wondering whats happened too about 'the amount that the law says you need to live on' that appears in calculations when you claim housing benefit etc.. I hope they get something sorted out soon cos there'lll be alot of homeless starving people in places like this. How do you go about finding work on the internet thats ok and isnt a con though? Know no one can help at the mo but even posting on here stops you from feeling 'alone' at times like this...thanx guys

Savvy_Sue

Can you appeal? Although I can understand the reasoning for people who regularly only work short contracts (like oil workers), it seems against natural justice if you take a seasonal job. Anyway, how were you supposed to know you wouldn't get another job in October, so needed to save up? If you weren't told in advance this really seems wrong. Hope you can get it sorted.

amber1818

Hi again...thanx Sue, posted message back last night but must have got lost in space..anyway, going to write appeal letter in a bit. Went to CAB today and they as much in the dark as everyone else apparently and couldnt help much. I worked it out that if I had to save up in summer on my wages of approx £120 i'd have had to save about £30 a week (thats after I've paid approx £50 for rent etc and more for bills) over all the weeks i worked to cover all the weeks from Nov to March when hopefully i could get another job. Thats if I couldnt get a job before which is highly unlikely in a place like this. Oh well, back to the grind and get my head round appeal letter.. Hmm...maybe i should go for the lapdancers job advertised on the jobcenter site,lol.
Does anyone know how much your Nat Ins contributions have to be before you can try contribution based JSA?....and does anyone know of any work that isnt a scam that can be done over the net?...

mummytofour

This is sooo bad I can not believe your situation, carry on like this and you will be signed off sick for depression

amber1818

Hmm...yep, i'm getting that way pretty quick at the mo...to top it all i've had an 18 month battle with tax credits with all that overpayment stuff. I havnt been eligable for it since last Dec but still fighting...and winning I think,fingers crossed, lol they've admitted it was their computer errors......oh god, got to laugh or I'd cry..sob, sniff...catch u later..

Savvy_Sue

amber1818 wrote:

Does anyone know how much your Nat Ins contributions have to be before you can try contribution based JSA?....and does anyone know of any work that isnt a scam that can be done over the net?...

I think - but I'm not 100% sure - that it has to be two full years of conts, but the years they count are a bit peculiar. Other people have posted that their years didn't count, because the years which are counted weren't full years or they didn't have any conts. I'm not sure what to suggest you search for, but do a bit of a trawl back JSA posts and I think you'll find something, or someone with a better memory than me will point you to them, or someone who KNOWS will post!

CIS

From the CPAG book,as I understand it;

Contribution based JSA is based on the last 2 years of conts, however they run by 'benefit years' not tax years.Benefit yrs run from january to january, for the 1st condition you must meet and tax years for the second condition.

In at least of one of the last two benefit years prior to the current benefit yr (yrs jan03/04, and jan 04/05) you have paid a minimum of 25 X LEL in class 1 contributions.

AND

for at least 50 x the LEL in each of the last two 'tax years' prior to the current benefit year (ie april02/03 and april 03/04)

The problem with this rule is that you must have paid a minimum of 25 between jan and jan, and 50 between april and april. Being a seasonal worker, it is possible that this makes it difficult for you.