JSA / Income support

b-man

Hi all,

I have recently lost my business and declared personal bankruptcy and am waiting for the dust to settle on everything. I'm currently on JSA but want to volunteer for Age Concern as a carer in the mornings and then work on an unpaid apprenticeship in the afternoons, i.e looking for a bit of a career change.

So I guess my question is, I dont really want to keep going to sign on as Im not really looking for a job, I hopefully will have two jobs but both of which are unpaid at the moment.

Is income support an option for me or is there any other way to support myself whilst doing these unpaid positions that you know of?


many thanks.

Bman

NASA_2

If your not looking for work then you arent entitled to JSA. To get on Income Support you have to have a qualifying condition ie. Carer, Single Parent....

b-man

So my only option would be to find paid care work then i guess?

NASA_2

b-man wrote: »

So my only option would be to find paid care work then i guess?

That's not quite what I meant.

To get IS you usually need to be on another benefit (Qualifying Condition) and the main ones are now Carers Allowance and Child Benefit (For lone parents).

b-man

is carers allowance something you are entitled to if you choose to do the care work voluntarily or is it only if it is a relative or something - i.e the person has noone else

NASA_2

b-man wrote: »

is carers allowance something you are entitled to if you choose to do the care work voluntarily or is it only if it is a relative or something - i.e the person has noone else

You have to be looking after someone, that someone has to be on at least middle rate care component of DLA, for at least 35 hours a week.

b-man

ok thanks. so really if i want to work for a charity - theres no other way of replacing my income from JSA other than finding paid charity work - is that pretty much it?

thanks for all the advice

Oldernotwiser

You'll normally be allowed to do voluntary work whilst claiming JSA as long as you're available for work and actively looking for it. This would mean giving up the voluntary work/training when you're offered a job.

Why don't you just get paid work as a carer rather than doing it as a volunteer? Even on minimum wage you'll only need to do about 12 hours a week to bring in more than JSA.