Newbie needing advice re JSA

Hinni

Hi everyone,

I've just joined the site and this is my first post - be gentle with me!

I have recently relocated due to my hubby being in the Forces. I filed a claim for JSA shortly after we got here and they have just written to me stating that they were unable to give me any payments due to a lack of NI contributions.
Apparently, they check your last 2 tax years to see whether you have paid enough. I paid enough last year as I was working but the year before I paid nothing! The reason being - I was in college for a year! How can they not take this into account when the very reason that I was in college was to better myself in order to get a job! Arrgh!! :mad:
To say I was hacked off was an understatement. I have worked all my life and this is the first time that I have ever claimed too. Not a good experience.

Do any of you have any experience of this? Do you think I have a good enough reason to appeal against their decision?
Any help or advice you can offer would be greatly received.

Sorry to rant in my first post but I'm new to the benefits system and now understand why many people get so frustrated with it.
Thanks.

hjb123

You should get some advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau who should be able to tell you what you are entitled to - or you could visit the Entitledto and put your details in to see what you may get. Another option would be to ring the Benefits Enquiry Line on 0800 882200 .

Are they saying that you arent entitled to any benefits or is it just the contributions based JSA?

Check out the Direct.gov site which has quite alot of info on benefits and also on how to appeal benefits decisions

PS. Welcome to MSE - since I joined I have had helpful advice from the peeps on here whenever I needed it!

oldmotherreilly

Sorry Hinni but there would be no point in appealing if you know that you did not pay any contributions for one of those two tax years as this rule is set in stone-the system doesn't take anything into account anything other than the two tax years that it is looking at. If you think that you may have paid some contributions during that tax year (ie you were at college courses September-July but paid contributions either side of this) then it might be worth finding your P60s and taking them to your Jobcentre to look at. There is a certain amount that you have to have paid in both tax years-it used to be 52X lower earnings level in both tax years (paid or been credited with) and 26 X lower earning level in one of them (only paid stamp counted for this). This is how it used to work for Unemployment Benefit but I don't know if the rules have changed now its JSA. The lower earnings level changes each tax year so you would have to look this up if you wanted to find out for yourself, although first off I would just take them to the Jobcentre for them to look at. If your husband is working full time then you would not be entitled to JSA (income based) , so I suspect that it JSA(contribution based) would be the only thing you could claim for unless youhave children. Hope this helps.

Hinni

Thank you for your replies.

I'm not entitled to any other benefits. There is only me and hubby.
Helen, will certainly look at Direct.gov for info - thanks!
Oldmotherreilly, never thought about the P60s. Will take a look. It's a contributions based claim.
Thanks again!

kelloggs36

The rules for claiming JSA are clear - they look at the 'last two complete tax years before the benefit year in which the claim is made'. The benefit year runs from jan - dec and the tax years from April to April. So, if you made a claim now, the two tax years in question would be from April 2004-5 and April 2005-6. if you claimed in March this year, the tax years would be April 2003-4 and April 2004-5. The only way to appeal is if they used the wrong tax years.