Student + Partner not entitled to Job Seekers & Benefit

seraphim_cry

My partner and I moved to Greater London in September where I became a student and he signed on to Job Seekers. Its been two months and he hasn't recieved a penny. Today he was told that he wasn't entitled to anything because apparently my £6,000 a year loan is enough for us both to live on! Its barely enough for me to pay my side of rent, bills and food! Our rent is £700 a month alone! We've just had a bill from water rates for £124 and a council tax bill for £144. I've paid the rent this month completely from my loan but I'm quickly running out of money. My partner hasn't been able to find a job yet either.

Does anyone have any advice for us? I've been struggling to find a part time job due to my college hours which are a lot more demanding than normal universities but I have applied for a few Xmas jobs. My partner has sent his CV off everywhere but still no luck.

Any help would be much appreciated.

dmg24

Did you not look into this before moving to London? The cost of living is very high there.

I'm not sure what you mean by your hours being more demanding than normal universities?

Student loans are considered as income for benefit purposes, and £6000 per annum is more than the amount that the govt considers a couple can live off (although I believe the loan is averaged over the academic year, not the full 52 weeks, so making the weekly amount even higher).

Is there a reason why he hasn't found a job yet?

Have you applied for LHA?

healy

Welcome back dmg.

Kavanne

Has your partner been filling in application forms, not just giving in CVs?

Applying for jobs online? I found my job by browsing company websites in my free time.

Have they signed up to temp agencies?

If he has GCSEs it's not hard to get a job if you TRY! I was a university dropout and I still managed to get a job within 1 mnth.

real1314

Your OH might be able to claim HB and CTB, even though you are a student. Youmight get something towards the rent this way?

tom9980

Just to clarify earlier comments.

Student loans are counted as income they count usually for a certain period of the year only as income, this is normally 42 weeks sometimes 43 and occasionally count for a shorter period than this as ive recently found out :rolleyes: during the summer which covers the other 10 weeks of the year your partner would get means tested JSA but by then your both or at least one of you will likely be working anyway.

One thing to be aware of is that the Jobcentre should be disregarding some money from this loan to cover travel and other expenses for 2008/9 this is £290 for travel and £370 for books etc. Also they normally deduct £10 per week as well for student loans. They do not include tuition fee loans and some other loans and bursaries in the calculation.

In your case given the circumstances you state it is no surprise that your loans have basically cancelled out any money your partner may have been entitled to claim for means tested benefits and apart from finding work the only other thing you can do is try and claim LHA and council tax benefit.

PS welcome back dmg