short time work and benefits

outofworksch

Further to my questions re.redundancy in another thread, my boss has now decided for the moment to cut our hours and wages from 37 hours per week to 15 hours in the hope that the work will pick up.
My problem now is, as I'm only working 15 hours can I claim contribution based JSA or would any benefit be classed as income based JSA?

As I understand, if it contribution based, they wont take into count my wife's part time wage for 6months whereas with income based they will.
Is that right?

jenie_2

Not too sure about your 1st question but no doubt someone will help you.

You are right about the income based jsa, they WILL take into account your wifes earnings. My hubby was made redundant 6 months ago, and at 56 he is finding it very hard to find another job. We were told just before christmas that he is not entitled to anything at all because I have a part time job, so he does not qualify for income based jsa.

outofworksch

Hi jenie
thank for you reply.
There must be something about that age as that is what I am and being with the same company all those years[19] hasn't done me any favours. I am so out of touch with the job market.

The reason I am trying to find out how it is classed is because if I can manage for a couple of weeks with out claiming and only living off the our wages, I'm hoping it will be less complicated in the long run.

McKneff

I wouldnt have thought you could claim any JSA if you were working.
This is job seekers allowance and you already have a job, but i'm sure that there are other benefits you could claim for which someone, very shortly will be along to advise you about.

jenie_2

Hi again outofworksch, I do understand what you are asking, because years ago if you were put on a short working week, you used to be able to sign on for the days that you weren't at work and get a little bit of benefit, but that doesn't exist anymore.

Its very hard when you've worked all your life and havn't a clue were to start with the benefits system. We just seem to have hit a brick wall with everything. Hope your work picks up again for you.

unimaginative_2

outofworksch wrote: »

Further to my questions re.redundancy in another thread, my boss has now decided for the moment to cut our hours and wages from 37 hours per week to 15 hours in the hope that the work will pick up.
My problem now is, as I'm only working 15 hours can I claim contribution based JSA or would any benefit be classed as income based JSA?

As I understand, if it contribution based, they wont take into count my wife's part time wage for 6months whereas with income based they will.
Is that right?

hi, so long as the employment is under 16hours per week, you can claim JSA.

Contribution based benefit is based on NI paid by yourself in the past 2 complete tax years, and it has to be Class 1. if you qualify for this, you'll recieve it for 182 days, and as it isn't means tested, your partners earnings wont be taken into account during this period. iff you have a private pension, however, this will be partly taken ino account.

As for your part time employment, the first £5 of your wage, you can keep, the rest comes right off your JSA.

i am a JSA benefit processor, by the way!

if you dont qualify for contribution based, you can apply for income based, but your partners earnings would be taken into account and you probably wouldn't qualify, you could still sign on though, if you did so, your NI would be paid for you. (that mostly applies to people not working part time).

outofworksch

Sorry I haven't posted, I'm trying to cut down on everything.
The wife had decided, for just a few weeks, we will try and survive and kept the month for when we will really need it.

unimaginative_2

outofworksch wrote: »

Sorry I haven't posted, I'm trying to cut down on everything.
The wife had decided, for just a few weeks, we will try and survive and kept the month for when we will really need it.

i understand, however, i'd advise anyone to claim right away when they become unemployed. you wouldn't get your claim backdated to when you became unemployed as you had no valid reason for not claiming sooner. plus, even if there was no actual money getting paid to you, you can sign for your NI contributions to be paid.