JSA/Housing Benefit New Claim Advice (bit of a complex one!)

savemeup

Hello, I've recently become unemployed as I have been working as a Lecturer on a part time basis for the last 6 months and the current term has just finished. I am due to start back work in September and will also begin studying for a PGCE full time from September should i be awarded a place on the course (99% sure).

Before I was working as a lecturer I was working abroad for the summer and had a period of 2 months between October - December unemployed when i did not claim jsa etc as I was pretty stupidly living off my overdraft and money I'd saved from the summer.

I'm not really fan of claiming jsa etc due to bad experiences with claims in the past when i haven't recieved any money for quitting jobs and being kept waiting for months - but i dont have much choice at the moment as i'm struggling to find temp work.

Due to my work abroad last summer, i'm pretty sure i wont qualify for contribution based jsa, and the income based looks like it could get tricky due to my partners circumstances:

She works part-time as a waitress where her hours vary from anything like 16-25 hrs per week. She also has highly irregular work coming in for web design work that she does, which really can vary from £50 - £400 pm (more often towards the lower end) which is on a self employed basis for which she is registered and calculating her own tax. I'm really worried that i wont get any money due to her unbalanced income.

I started my claim online and am now awaiting a phone call. How can i explain all of this to the jobcentre people when they call and still be in sted for my claim? Anyone know the likelihood of my outcome or can offer advice about what avenues to go down in order to get any jsa/hb i'm entitled to?

thanks guys

Ulala_2

You won't qualify for JSA(IB) if your partner is working on average 24 hours per week or more. So if she's employed 16-25 hrs each week ... and self employed too ... I'm wondering if you'll qualify for JSA(IB) at all simply because of the number of hours she's working.

savemeup

This is what i'm worried about, tbh its a bit of a joke.

I dont know how were expected to pay rent, council tax and bills, food etc on her part-time wages of around £150 per week max. Our rent is £125 pw and coucil tax is £25 pw, so is she supposed to pay all of this and we starve? How can the limit be at 24hrs for a couple when the national minum wages is so low and living costs are so high?

Are there any other avenues i can explore until i find temp work? My chance of finding anyone to employ me for 8 weeks in this climate seem pretty grim -i

Rich44_2

can't you still put in a claim for HB and CTB without the JSA? if you're income is that low

Ulala_2

As Rich says you can still apply for a rebate for your rent & council tax on low income grounds even if they class her as being 24 hrs or more. How successful that'll be depends on her earnings and how they average them out ... nothing ventured, nothing gained

savemeup

I've basically just calculated her hours worked from the last 3 months, and it ranges from 10 - 24 per week for the waitressing. I think that if i explain this to them week by week, hour by hour - I could just about scrape the jsa (?)

Would her web design stuff class as "extra income" or something along them lines? Theres no way that she can break it down into hours as she is not a pro designer and is still learning, so she will spend sometimes 2 months on a site and make 300-400 for it. For this amount she has probably put in something like 200+ hours into the creation as she is learning as she goes! surely this cant be accounted for as an hourly income?

@rich, ulala - Should i put the claim in for HB/CT now then as i was under the impression that being on jsa would strengthen the jsa claim?

thanks in advance guys...

Ulala_2

No easy way to put it, but if your partner is doing roughly 25 hrs p.w. self employed (your figures) plus 10-24 hrs p.w. as an employed earner there's no chance you'll get JSA(IB).

Yep, get your HB/CTB claim in asap. Perhaps an expert on those benefits might be along shortly to check out your figures.

savemeup

^ no i think you misunderstood me somewhere - my partner works:

10-24 hrs pw part time as a waitress

and receives highly irregular amounts of income from web design. She completes around 1 site every 2 months and recieves 3-400 pound for this.

Its just the design payments are hard to calcualte as she is by no means a pro - she works every spare minute on the sites/learning as a hobby but getting little jobs along the way. She doesnt earn what one would call an income from this. If we calculated it properly it would probably equate to around £2 per hour. I know we could probably not even declare this given its scale but she is paying tax on these earnings so its all on .

Sorry for the confusion, as the title of thread states: its a bit complex

dmg24

It is not a complex case. You will just need to declare her earnings each time you sign on, then they will adjust your next payment (which could be nil) accordingly.

You can apply for LHA and CTB, but again will have to declare her income at regular intervals for the award to be adjusted.

savemeup

^thanks for that, i'll give it all a go and see how it goes. cheers again