Australian needs benefits advice

Aussie_Bloke

Okay, I've got an interesting issue. I am an Australian (living in Australia) and I recently met a really nice girl from the UK. I recently traveled to the UK to meet her and spend some time with her and now I would like to get her out to Australia for a holiday.

The issue is that she recently transferred from Income Support to Jobseeker Allowance as her daughter recently turned 10 years of age. I have since been told that she now cannot travel overseas without penalties being applied.

Can someone please tell me what the 'latest' laws are regarding her eligibility to travel overseas. Specifically, I am interested in knowing the following:

1 - If she travels to Australia for a 4 week holiday, I assume she has to inform the Job Centre that she is traveling overseas and then she effectively signs off. When she returns to the UK, she has to sign on again.

2 - Once she returns to the UK and she signs on again, is she eligible to receive Jobseeker allowance immediately, or is there a waiting period where she will receive no benefits? If there is a waiting period, how long is it?

3 - Additionally, she is currently living in privately rented housing. I assume her Housing Benefit would be cancelled while she is overseas. Can someone tell me how would her Housing Benefit be impacted once she returns? Would she be eligible for Housing benefit from the moment she returns to the UK, or is there a waiting period? If so, how long would the waiting period be?

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Strangely enough, I work for Australia's Social Security Agency (Centrelink). For those wondering about Australians traveling overseas, Centrelink cross references all its records with the Australian Immigration Department (DIAC) to see if you are on an unemployment benefit and you have left Australia without informing Centrelink. If you leave the country without correctly informing us, you are suspended immediately. So yes... Big Brother is watching you, but if you are not looking for work then you are not entitled to a benefit.

Looking forward to your responses.
Regards

System

I'm afraid I too can't answer your questions for you but it's really interesting to hear how the system works in Australia.

Someone will be along to provide answers soon.

sammyjammy

She will need to sign off and will lose her Housing Benefit for the period she is away. She will be eligible for both housing benefit and Jobseekers allowance on her return fro mday one subject ot her meeting the requirements obviously (it may take a while for the housing benefit/JSA to start up again but it will be backdated)

Aussie_Bloke

Thank you for your responses. For those worried about who is paying for the holiday, I can guarantee everyone that I will be footing the bill. I intend to cover the costs for her and her kids along with her housing benefit while she is out of the country. Let's be realistic here, it's impossible for someone on Jobseeker Allowance to plan and pay for a holiday to Australia (unless they are defrauding the system in some way), the flights alone are approximately $5000 AU. So yes, I will be paying for everything.

Ultimately, I need to be able to budget enough so that she does not lose her house for the sake of a few weeks in Australia. The last thing I want to do is end up with her returning to the UK and finding herself homeless and possibly off benefits for the next 12 weeks or something stupid like that.

As it stands, she is desperately looking for work but she cannot find anything that suits her situation as a single parent. It's a bit hard to accept a job when they expect her to start at 6-7am and she has kids to get ready for school. At the end of the day, I understand the unemployment system better than most and it is insane to expect single parents to take on jobs that have ridiculous starting times. There needs to be some level of sanity when assigning jobs to single parents... but I digress... lol.

Someone stated that her benefits would be immediately re-instated once she signs on again. Can someone please confirm that she would be immediately eligible for her benefits from the day she returns and signs on? Finally, how long would you expect before the first payment would kick in again and be backdated to her sign on day? I would need to budget this into my costs. Are we talking a week or a month etc. I'm not used to the UK system and I am not aware of how fast benefits are re-instated or if there are penalties involved.

If all goes well, I may be able to get her to move to Australia permanently and I will be doing my little bit to remove one person from the UK welfare system, God knows there are no jobs in the UK that suits her situation (she has looked everywhere for something) and I know there are plenty of opportunities here in Australia for her.

Thanks in advance.

dugdale_2

If her circumstances haven't changed during her trip to Australia she should be able to make a Rapid Reclaim for JSA. Her payments will be made from the day that she gets in touch with the contact centre - no waiting days. Might take a couple of weeks before she gets her first JSA payment certainly not months. Can't comment on housing benefit as I don't have any dealings with that side of a claim.