Are we entitled to income based job seekers allowance?

kevinthecaravan

I was unfortunatley made redundant late last year and have been claiming contribution based job seekers allowance for almost 6 months now. I understand that this ends after 6 months and we should now claim income based job seekers allowance. We have 2 chiildren aged 7 & 9 and my wife works 18 hours per week, with a gross income of about £650 per month. I have spoken to the job centre and a few other departments of the DWP and nobody can provide any guidance as to whether we are entitled to this benefit or not. I am really worried, please can someone offer advice?

Thanks

alwaysonthego_2

You can sign on to IBJSA and get your NI conts paid but your wife is earning too much to be entitled to a payment.

kevinthecaravan

Thanks. What is the amount that she can earn?

I have just posted a linked question, which is that we have redundancy cover from Paymentshield, which has luckily been paying out since our change in circumstances. I understand that to continue receiving this, we must be in receipt of jsa. If we do not get jsa, will our payments stop even though I am still out of work?

Oldernotwiser

If your wife works fewer than 16 hours a week you'll no longer be eligible for WTC.

alwaysonthego_2

kevinthecaravan wrote: »

Thanks. What is the amount that she can earn?

I have just posted a linked question, which is that we have redundancy cover from Paymentshield, which has luckily been paying out since our change in circumstances. I understand that to continue receiving this, we must be in receipt of jsa. If we do not get jsa, will our payments stop even though I am still out of work?

You can still sign on and be entitled to JSA even if you are not in reciept of an actual payment iyswim, they should still sign you form.

kevinthecaravan

Thanks very much. My wife works 18 hours per week. I have been reading somewhere else about working tax credit. Is this a possibility as losing £63 a week jsa is a problem?

wobblymummy

Hi

I think you will be entitled to WTC if she earns under 18k PA. You can still sign for your NI credits and the Job centre will sign your form so you can send it off to your insurer, even if you dont physically get JSA anymore they will accept
the form and pay out.

alwaysonthego_2

kevinthecaravan wrote: »

Thanks very much. My wife works 18 hours per week. I have been reading somewhere else about working tax credit. Is this a possibility as losing £63 a week jsa is a problem?

The government say a couple can live on £102.75 plus a £10 disregard, as your income is higher than £92.75 it means you will not get a payment.

However aslong as your wife works more than 16 hours you could get WTC.

Voyager2002

I hope that you are also claiming (and receiving) child tax credit.

JS477

Has it always been the case that if you had another income coming into the house you only got the [CB] JSA for 6 months?

Also if you're not getting any dole are you expected to officially look for work and are you included on the unemployment register?

Ta

healy

JS477 wrote: »

Has it always been the case that if you had another income coming into the house you only got the [CB] JSA for 6 months?

Also if you're not getting any dole are you expected to officially look for work and are you included on the unemployment register?

Ta

No they used to pay conts based JSA for 12 months but this stopped quite a long time ago, at a guess I would say early 90s but someone else may know the exact year.

Yes you are still expected to look for work if you are signing on for JSA credits only.