Sign on dole / benefits during summer as a student?

Marteebies

No experience, no job, if you want to sign on, expect to stay there for a long time.

Good luck with your life.

Lokolo

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

and students wonder why they aren't being offered high paying jobs straight out of uni - maybe because you've got no work experience at all and obviously no work ethic as you just want cash handed to you...

Well duh! We don't want to have to do work to go anywhere in life(!)

RHB

Its entirely possible to earn far far more even in 10 hours work i.e. one busy day than the £60 or whatever you get for signing on for a week. rinse and repeat for the rest of the week and you're looking at hundreds of pounds.

I'm talking about the catering/waitering stuff, anything up to £6.25 an hour as a starting wage.

xsheenax18

Some people may actually need this money, whilst looking for a job, so as you asked for some advice rather than a load of people jumping on the moral high ground. I'll just pass on what I have been told from my uni, that is that you can claim income support in the holidays if you are a lone parent of at least one child under ten, and you can claim job seekers allowance if you are in a couple who are both full time students and have a child and one of you signs on, or you are a lone parent with a youngest child aged over ten.
Also student maintenance loan is only treated as income when calculating benefit until the last week in June.

Oldernotwiser

xsheenax18 wrote: »

Some people may actually need this money, whilst looking for a job, so as you asked for some advice rather than a load of people jumping on the moral high ground. I'll just pass on what I have been told from my uni, that is that you can claim income support in the holidays if you are a lone parent of at least one child under ten, and you can claim job seekers allowance if you are in a couple who are both full time students and have a child and one of you signs on, or you are a lone parent with a youngest child aged over ten.
Also student maintenance loan is only treated as income when calculating benefit until the last week in June.

There was no indication from the OP that s/he was anything other than a normal (childless) student.

hippy-chicy

As a single FTS with no dependants between years of the same degree course you are not eligible to claim Job Seekers Allowance. However, I am pretty sure that many do even though they are not entitled to. Its is the same for HB/CTB you would not be entitled.

System

I fudged up budgeting my loan in my first year and HAD to get a job. It was working in a crappy nightclub but it got me by.

hippy-chicy

xXMessedUpXx wrote: »

I fudged up budgeting my loan in my first year and HAD to get a job. It was working in a crappy nightclub but it got me by.

Ditto...except I ended up working in faulty towers and thats not an exageration :rotfl:

brians_daughter

Technically you arent allowed to sign on if you dont fit the criteria above, but saying that i know at least a dozen ppl from uni who have/are/will. They said they arent planning on returning to uni. I assume this is breaking the rules and regs somewhat and wouldnt advise anyone to do it, but it happens.

OP not much help now, but next year you should start looking for work prior to easter, I have 3 jobs this summer (in the hope of not needing to use my student loan next year/being able to pay my own fees) as well as looking after my 3 kids! I secured my 1st job in Feb (to start May) 2nd in March (to start in May) and 3rd job just kinda found me!

Maybe you could look at avon, betterware etc whilst you continue the hunt for a summer job?

Hermia

hippy-chicy wrote: »

Ditto...except I ended up working in faulty towers and thats not an exageration :rotfl:

I ended up working in The Shining and that's no exaggeration. There was even a door with "Red Rum" scrawled on it!