getting educated whilst on benefits

paulmcd

Hi im looking to find out if there are courses i could do part time whilst on benifits

im on job seekers only been on them a month

but ive heard about a course doing plumbing & electrical at a college i could do whilst im claiming

but its only hear say

would they stop my housing & council tax beifits due to this if i went on such a course

im going to go into the job center on monday to find out more but anything picked up on the fourm will be to my adavantage


many thanks

dmg24

You can study part time whilst claiming benefits. Your local college's website should detail any fee exemptions, but most will only apply to income based JSA, not conts based.

omelette451

Your local college will be able to give some advice specific to the types of courses you're interested in, and you might like to ask them before going to the job centre so you're clued up on the specifics. That said, job centre staff are the ones who really know what's what, and from my experience are more than happy to talk impartially about your options, so don't worry too much. Good luck!

balustrada

It's the time commitments of the course that are most likely to affect your benefit entitlements for two reasons. Firstly, you must be available for work for 40 hours a week, which could mean that you must be willing to give up the course if it overlaps with the times that you've agreed to be available for work and a suitable job becomes available for you to apply for. That said, the more flexible you are prepared to be about the type of work and the hours you are prepared to do, the less likelihood there will be of your availability for work and benefits being affected.

The second potential problem is whether the course falls within what the law considers to be full-time, which is not always related to the number of hours of college attendance. This aspect of the law is complex and depends on several different factors including how the course is funded. If the course is considered full-time according to the law your availability for work then becomes irrelevant and your JSA will be disallowed.

My advice to you is to first clearly establish the details of the course that you want to do. Only then will it be possible to determine what, if any, likely effect it will have on your benefits.

Always_Harassed

Why don't you look at Training and see if there are any suitable courses. It usually is full time training at benefits + £10.00 and any fares are paid and sometimes childcare. Provision varies throughtout the country. Sometimes have to unemployed 6months but are early entry circumstances. Unlikely to get any apprenticeships but sometimes get jobs with large companies with a social conscience.
Many areas have development companies and they specialise in providing help to unemployed people and oftern deliver training. Avoid some of the national companies that would see their granny to get people into dreadful jobs.