What, if anything, can she claim?

lollyhop

I wondered if anyone on here might have some advice for my sister.. she has recently left her part time job (through choice, stupid I know and have told her so) she is a single mum with an 11 year old daughter at secondary school. Her ex-husband pays her £400 odd a month in maintenance but she has no other income...
She is used to earning about £500 a month in her part time job which is topped up with tax credits to make it about £1500 with maintenance included… so she’s going to be quite seriously out of pocket bless her (although she’s a wally!)

Does anyone know what kind of benefits can be claimed in this situation? I was worried because I’m sure I’ve heard if you leave a job voluntarily then you cant get job seekers… and you cant get tax credits if you don’t work… I suppose I’m needing to know if Im going to have to step in and help or if they’ll be ok?She is haveing no joy finding a new job

MrsBartolozzi

She should still be getting child tax credits at around £50 a week. If she were to sign on and look for work she could get JSA £65.45 a week.
Also council tax and housing benefits/LHA.

ETA sorry, didn't see the bit about her choosing to leave work. She'll probably be sanctioned from JSA for around 6 months.

lollyhop

Thanks so much. And you dont happen to know if its correct that she'll only be able to stipulate that she will only look at school hours jobs until my niece is 12 do you? It seems so from reading this..

seven-day-weekend

I think the age has changed to seven now.

Jowo_2

From Monday 25 October, all single parents with a youngest child aged seven to nine will be switched from income support to the tougher jobseeker’s allowance (JSA).

http://www.gingerbread.org.uk/content.aspx?CategoryID=519

DX2

lollyhop wrote: »

Thanks so much. And you dont happen to know if its correct that she'll only be able to stipulate that she will only look at school hours jobs until my niece is 12 do you? It seems so from reading this..

Yes she can stipulate this.

Type of work
You can discuss what type of work is suitable with
your Jobcentre Plus personal adviser.
You can place some restrictions on the type of work
that you will accept:

��

If you are caring for a child under the age of 16,

you can limit the hours you work to 16 a week;
��

If you have a child under the age of 13, you can

limit your working hours to your child’s usual
school hours. You must still be available to work
at least 16 hours a week and you must be willing
to take up any employment that fits within these hours.
http://www.gingerbread.org.uk/uploads/media/17/7034.pdf