How much can you earn on top of JSA

emmalt

My brother is on JSA and has just come to live with me to look for a job, as he had no success op north.

Within 48 hours he has been offered 5 hours work @ £5.73/hour. He contacted the Job centre and has been told that he can only earn £5 before it affects his JSA. Effectively he can't even work an hour!

Is this correct? It seems daft to me as it could cost more than £5 to get there and back! He is doing the work as it may lead to other things but where is the incentive!

ukdickie31

It's been £5 for years.... not even rising when NMW came in.

Your last sentence sums up the positives - hopefully it will lead to other things.

emma396

when i signed up to jsa, got offered a job for 11 hours at £6.25/hr. called up job centre and they arranged an appointment for me to declare my hours the next time i signed in. jsa for me was only £45 so was worth me taking the 11hr job.

emmalt

ukdickie31 wrote: »

It's been £5 for years.... not even rising when NMW came in.

Your last sentence sums up the positives - hopefully it will lead to other things.

I can understand now why people don't bother as if they have travel costs they are down before they start. It would be difficult to remain positive after a while.

Well at least it gets him out from under my feet :rotfl:

emmalt

emma396 wrote: »

when i signed up to jsa, got offered a job for 11 hours at £6.25/hr. called up job centre and they arranged an appointment for me to declare my hours the next time i signed in. jsa for me was only £45 so was worth me taking the 11hr job.

That would be worth it! Nearly £70 v. £45. He will be earning £25 but can only keep £5 so goes from £60 to £65. I think a more realistic figure should be £20 - £30 as it would encourage people to take the odd 5 hours work offered.

Oldernotwiser

emmalt wrote: »

That would be worth it! Nearly £70 v. £45. He will be earning £25 but can only keep £5 so goes from £60 to £65. I think a more realistic figure should be £20 - £30 as it would encourage people to take the odd 5 hours work offered.

If people could keep £20/30 on top of of their JSA/HB/CTC we'd have even more people signing on than we do now!

emmalt

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

If people could keep £20/30 on top of of their JSA/HB/CTC we'd have even more people signing on than we do now!

Not everybody is a scrounger. Some people are really looking for jobs and need encouragement.

I hope that, god forbid; I am ever in need that help will be there for me. That’s why I have no problem, as a high earner, paying my taxes and NI. There but for the grace of God…..

dragonfly2008

When you have the 8 week interview or at what ever point it is, they tell you to look for jobs within an 80 mile radius and you should be applying for any job. I mean, 80 mile radius for a minimum wage job :rolleyes:

ceridwen

dragonfly2008 wrote: »

When you have the 8 week interview or at what ever point it is, they tell you to look for jobs within an 80 mile radius and you should be applying for any job. I mean, 80 mile radius for a minimum wage job :rolleyes:

80 MILES:eek: !

Surely they should at least take account of how long that would take to get to (very much dependent on whether one is driving and using a quiet road or having to rely on public transport and changing connections). However - 80 miles - even at a best case analysis would mean over 2 hours per day travelling to and from work - before earning any money or having a life!:eek: I would be interested to see "chapter and verse" from their manual re this if anyone has it - as I am wondering whether this was one particular DWP employee who hadnt got their facts straight - rather than REALLY being the case.

I know the level of benefit one has to try and live on is totally unrealistic - even at "bread and marge" and spend all day/every day watching tv level - but I would have thought there was some "reasonable person" test as to just how far one could reasonably be expected to travel to get to work each day.

I know I certainly have a "reasonable person" scale in my head. That "scale" goes:

- for NMW level jobs - travel to work time is max 20 minutes walk (meaning "walk" - as one cant afford fares out of that level of income)

- for NMW plus at least £1 per hour - travel to work time is max 30 minutes and one might consider catching one bus or one train (dependant on the fare level)

- for 80 miles journey to work - hmmmm....thinks......I personally wouldnt even consider that amount of travelling to work for any salary under the sun...as I have a life to lead and wouldnt have a hope in hell of doing so for that amount of travelling time. But...if I was desperate and wanted to earn loadsamoney in a short space of time - I think I might conceivably manage that for an absolute maximum of 6 months, during which time I earned at least £35,000 pa. Yes - seriously. I would expect particularly good money to make it worth that amount of effort and having to give up my life totally whilst I had that job (by the time I got back from it of an evening I wouldnt be able to do anything that evening, weekends would be largely taken up with shopping and housework and a sizeable chunk of holiday time would vanish in "maintenance of life" type stuff) - so I would be lucky if I actually had any time for myself at all with that much travel-to-work having to be done.

I really seriously question whether it IS 80 miles radius or no - I dont think that can be accurate as its so wildly unrealistic.

ceridwen

I've just been googling and found that apparently the average commute to work time for British workers is 45 minutes (ie one couldnt possibly travel anything like 80 miles in that time - even with the best circumstances in the world):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3085647.stm

I really honestly think that D.W.P. person was talking through their hat saying "80 miles" - I just literally wouldnt believe them if I were a claimant.

So theres 2 routes to go down here. Either:

1. An official complaint and query as to whether that is accurate - perhaps to one's M.P. and tell the local newspaper about it.

OR

2. The more devious route - say you are willing to do "whatever it takes" to get a job: ie any time/any place/any wage/etc - but put in only a token amount of effort to get the jobs one couldnt reasonably be expected to take and if one still got an interview for an "unreasonable" job - then make sure you fail it (nothing too madly obvious - just a combination of bitsy things: eg being mildly late; dressed in a reasonable by everyday standards way - but not "quite" right for a job interview; visibly hesitate just a little long on any awkward questions the interviewer comes up with).

I wouldnt think it was "fair play" to fail an interview for a reasonable job. One has the responsibility to make a reasonable effort to get a reasonable job - but 80 miles travel to work - well, no holds barred in failing those job interviews:D

If anyone needs to look up how long it takes to get from home to work then use Traveline website:

http://www.traveline.org.uk/index.htm

(that enables one to look up travel possibilities by public transport between any 2 places in Britain.)

Oldernotwiser

Aren't you missing the point that many people could consider moving to take a job that becomes available? I know it's not possible for everybody but it's certainly something to be considered.

I certainly don't think that your idea of not being prepared to work more than a mile or so from home (on NMW) is particularly helpful for someone looking for a job. I'm sure JCP wouldn't agree with you and quite right too!