Job Seekers Allowance Problem

CrazyMiner_2

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if someone could give me some advice my situation, which is as follows.

I graduated from university in May 2009 and began working for a company straightaway. During university I had worked almost full-time in order to support myself. I left this job on the 5th of February 2010 after the company I was working for closed down. After a few weeks of job searching, I made a claim at the Job Centre on the 23rd February 2010. This long winded process was completed and I asked for my case to be backdated to when I had left my previous job (still awaiting a decision on this).

My partner is a full-time student who lives with me, and I was told that I could claim for the couples allowance (£100 per week or so), which I thought would suit my needs as I was job searching. So I have been signing on for the past few weeks (3 times in total) and have my last sign-on date set to next Thursday as I will be starting a new job on the 4th May 2010.

However, after a long and drawn out claim, in which I have not actually received any money yet (although I have signed on 3 times!!!). I phoned the centre today (21st April 2010, 2 months after I started my claim!!) to ask for what must be the 10th time why I was yet without any payments and have been told that I will be receiving £25 A WEEK!

How can they expect me to live off £25 a week? They said that as my partner receives a student bursary due to being a final year medical student (she receives a total of £3,750 over the course of the year) that they were going to reduce my claim by £75 per week due to what she receives and that they expected her to support me.

How can they say this? My partner does not work due to basically being at the hospital from 9am to 5pm each day training and does not receive any other income. £1,000 or so from her bursary goes to paying for her tuition fees (as she started her course before the tuition fee increase came in), which leaves her with £2,750 for all her other costs FOR THE YEAR, so obviously she can not support both of us!

Even if she did support both of us, it would mean we would be on £77 or so per week........ I think its disgusting!

I'm considering complaining, because the claim was so long winded and I received absolutely no help from any of the so called job seeker advisers (in fact on several occasions I was told how to cheat the benefits system by them as it would involve less paper work on their behalf). I wouldn't of bothered signing on if they had just told me before hand how little I would get... I mean seriously - £25 a week for all the messing around involved.

As I have been out of work for what will be around 3 months when I start now in May at my new job, i ahve had to take my overdraft right up to the hilt which is currently standing at £1,600 overdrawn and have used credit cards to pay for food etc which are now standing at £1,500 owed.

If there anything else I can do? I could REALLY do with some help and it's starting to get me a bit depressed to be honest.

Caz3121

Not sure why you were told to include a full time student in your claim....

To qualify for CB JSA you will have to have made sufficient NI contributions over the period Apt 07 - Apr 09, if you qualify this payment would ignore your partners income and be a single claim paying around £65 per week

If you do not qualify for CB JSA then you would look at IB JSA, this looks at the entire household income and where students involved would include income from student loans - even if they are not taken!

The government have a figure that they say a couple need to live and that is around £100 for a couple so I am assuming the £25 per week is to take you to that level.

tinktinktinkerbell

no point in complaining as you wont get any more, they are the rules so (sorry to be harsh) but tough luck, your partner is a full time student who lives with you, her 'income' would be taken into account too

Indie_Kid

Can she not get a job over the summer?

Amistoso_2

That's how it works I'm afraid OP, not an ideal situation but JSA is meant to be a stop gap in times of need so maybe that will spur you on to find a job as quickly as possible?
As for the JC staff encouraging you to cheat the system, I find that really hard to beleive, it's more than their jobs are worth.
No point in complaining about how long winded you think the process is either, it's the same for everyone, they have so many new claims every day it just takes time to get through them all.
All the best with your job hunting efforts as finding a job seems to be the best solution to your problems and when your OH is fully qualified you'll both be in a much more comfortable financial situation

Lillyme

Good luck with the job-hunt - for every vacancy in my area there are over 100 applicants - even if it's just cleaning !

The process for claiming JSA is long winded and harder if it's the first time you have claimed. Even if you lived alone you would only get £65.

Just the way it is nowadays