JSA entitlement

calamityjane_1961

Can anyone help me? It's easy enough to find out how many working hours makes you eligible for JSA, or how much savings, but not how much income. I have been unemployed since the first week of January. My partner is a full time PhD student. He receives a total of 13,000 a year from different sources in the forms of grant, bursary and pay for teaching undergraduates (less than 12 hours a week). The Jobcentre has now taken 17 weeks to decide if I am eligible to get JSA or not. After getting my MP involved (17 weeks is a very long time to wait for a decision...) one day this week I had an apologetic letter from the jobcentre saying YES, the next day a phone call saying NO, because my partners income is too high. I have absolutely no confidence in the ability of the DWP to have got it right yet, after a catalogue of mistakes. Anyone got any ideas? Is my boyfriend's 13,000 income really too much for me to get JSA? We have no savings, no children and we rent a flat.

Oldernotwiser

Had you been paying NICs before you were unemployed and, if so, for how long?

bunny999

His earnings are too high for you to get JSA income based. The JSA rate for a couple is apprax £104 per week, so if your joint income exceeds this you are not entitled. If you had paid enough NI you could have got JSA conts based for 6 months.

calamityjane_1961

Thank you. It would be great if somewhere there was clear information about how much income is too much, for example, if you have more than 8000 in savings you don't qualify - that's clearly stated. I could have saved myself a lot of stress if 17 weeks ago someone had simply looked at my application and given me an answer! There is a bit of follow up - 24 hours after the phone call saying NO (that I had 24 hours after the letter saying YES...) I had another letter detailing how much had been deposited into my account (??) I went online to find that the DWP has attempted to remove the JSA backpay before it had actually paid it in.... this whole thing is riddled with incompetence.
Oldernotwiser - sadly no - I'm one those graduates affected by the recession and since graduating have only managed temp jobs in shops. As I have not been doing a particular job for a year (which is the type of "essential" that 99% of job adverts require) I'm a bit stuck. Can't even get a call centre job because I don't have "targeted sales experience". I know I'm not the only one.

healy

calamityjane_1961 wrote: »

Thank you. It would be great if somewhere there was clear information about how much income is too much, for example, if you have more than 8000 in savings you don't qualify - that's clearly stated. I could have saved myself a lot of stress if 17 weeks ago someone had simply looked at my application and given me an answer! There is a bit of follow up - 24 hours after the phone call saying NO (that I had 24 hours after the letter saying YES...) I had another letter detailing how much had been deposited into my account (??) I went online to find that the DWP has attempted to remove the JSA backpay before it had actually paid it in.... this whole thing is riddled with incompetence.
Oldernotwiser - sadly no - I'm one those graduates affected by the recession and since graduating have only managed temp jobs in shops. As I have not been doing a particular job for a year (which is the type of "essential" that 99% of job adverts require) I'm a bit stuck. Can't even get a call centre job because I don't have "targeted sales experience". I know I'm not the only one.

The higher capital limit is £16000 and not £8000.

Oldernotwiser

calamityjane_1961 wrote: »

Oldernotwiser - sadly no - I'm one those graduates affected by the recession and since graduating have only managed temp jobs in shops..

But that wouldn't have stopped you paying NICs and then being able to claim contributions based JSA.

calamityjane_1961

Oldernotwiser - thanks for this. since graduating last year I've only managed to find 6 months fulltiime work on barely more than minimum wage- is that enough NI contributions? The jobcentre know this, but the service I received has been so incompetent so far I wouldn't be suprised if they got that wrong too?

Voyager2002

calamityjane_1961 wrote: »

Oldernotwiser - thanks for this. since graduating last year I've only managed to find 6 months fulltiime work on barely more than minimum wage- is that enough NI contributions? The jobcentre know this, but the service I received has been so incompetent so far I wouldn't be suprised if they got that wrong too?

Your entitlement to contributions-based JSA is based on contributions you paid two years before making the claim. So it sounds as if, during the tax year relevant to a claim made in January this year, you would have been a full-time student and so not paying any NI contribution.

calamityjane_1961

Thank you voyager2002, that's kind of what I thought.

PasturesNew

If you want experience to apply for call centre jobs, it's worthwhile phoning round all the local double glazing firms to see if they have any tele-canvassing jobs. It's a hard job and they usually struggle to find/keep people.... but it would give you telesales/tele-canvassing experience. It's also a stark reminder just how hard/!!!!!! some jobs are

I've done loads of random jobs on the phones like that. If I needed money I'd just get an evening job tele-canvassing. They usually take people on straight away and as they're small firms it's a simple "do you have any jobs doing ..." Yes/No. And "can you come in to see us ....?" then "Can you start tomorrow?"

Telephone canvassing's great because you can wear jeans to work and don't have to look good if your stats are showing you're good.