JSA amount calculation

thriftychick

My husband has recently been made redundant and he has made a claim for JSA and been put on contributions based JSA of £60.50. The jobcentre did the paperwork for income based JSA aswell as they thought we would be entitled to it. I work 22 hours a week term time and earn £114 a week.

They say in the letter that we have sufficient income to live but how do they work that out? Is there a place where they state how much should go on food, heating etc.?

tom9980

There is a set amount in law a childless couple need i think its £94.50 at the moment if you earn more you wont get Income based Jobseekers.

If you partner has enough NI contributions he would get the £60.50 regardless of your income, you say hes getting it so that means you income is actually £60.50 + your £114 per week this is more than enough to live but a shock for most working people adjust to, especially as there is a misconception that its easy to get "handouts".

thriftychick

Thanks for that tom9980 and you're right it is going to be a shock. We have 2 children and a mortgage to support so I see a hard year ahead for us. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

cw18

have you notified tax credits about the drop in income? they can recalcute (and change payments now) if this years income is going to be less than last years (which is what your claim would automatically be based on).

if you were on means tested benefits only you'd get over £100/week from tax credits, so it's possible you might be entitled to a small increase between now and the end of the tax year.

zoezoe_3

thriftychick wrote: »

Thanks for that tom9980 and you're right it is going to be a shock. We have 2 children and a mortgage to support so I see a hard year ahead for us. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

if you have kids then you also have child benefit and also shoudl be able to claim tax credits.

cw18

you can also possibly apply for ISMI, which gives help with your mortgage interest. There is a 13 week waiting period for this (so get the claim in and the clock running), and any income you have above what they say you "need" (ie. the IS levels is you were getting that) will be deducted from it -- but it might help depending on how much your mortgage is

sammyjammy

The OP wouldn't be entitled to ISMI as they are not in receipt of means tested benefits.

cw18

Neither were DH and I, but we got it !!!

Our combined IB (we were both on that) was less than we'd have been entitled to on IS with ISMI and CT benefit, so they paid us 10p/week of the ISMI as IS (so we then had a valid IS claim), and we then got partial ISMI and partial CT benefit (they were reduced as 2xIB came to more than IS for a couple). I'm still not convinced they calculated correctly as we also had a dependant son, but I gave up fighting as we were only entitled to 50% (DH was on high rates DLA, so we got this after 8 weeks instead of 29) and were only entitled to it for 10 weeks anyway before I went back to work!!

dmg24

cw18 wrote: »

Neither were DH and I, but we got it !!!

Our combined IB (we were both on that) was less than we'd have been entitled to on IS with ISMI and CT benefit, so they paid us 10p/week of the ISMI as IS (so we then had a valid IS claim), and we then got partial ISMI and partial CT benefit (they were reduced as 2xIB came to more than IS for a couple). I'm still not convinced they calculated correctly as we also had a dependant son, but I gave up fighting as we were only entitled to 50% (DH was on high rates DLA, so we got this after 8 weeks instead of 29) and were only entitled to it for 10 weeks anyway before I went back to work!!

Please stop giving out this advice cw18, it is wrong. The reason that you would have been entitled to IS was because of the premiums associated with your husband receiving HRC. This will not be the same for the OP.

cw18

If I'm wrong then I apologise, but my understanding was than anyone who was on less than the government said they needed to live on (which includes rent/mortgage as if they were on IS) could claim for assistance -- that's the way it was explained to me at the time by the Job Centre Plus staff

ETA: We weren't on any means tested benefits, and our joint IB was more than we'd have received on IS even with the extra premiums due to DH's DLA. We were checked for the standard £6k/£16k limits of capital before being granted ISMI though.

healy

cw18 wrote: »

If I'm wrong then I apologise, but my understanding was than anyone who was on less than the government said they needed to live on (which includes rent/mortgage as if they were on IS) could claim for assistance -- that's the way it was explained to me at the time by the Job Centre Plus staff

ETA: We weren't on any means tested benefits, and our joint IB was more than we'd have received on IS even with the extra premiums due to DH's DLA. We were checked for the standard £6k/£16k limits of capital before being granted ISMI though.

If your husband was receiving extra premiums with his DLA those premiums would have been Income Support premiums and would lead to entitlement to ISMI.