Help? Friend expected to live on 70p a week benefits?

chalkiesalem_2

When I was made redundant just over a year ago I was advised i wasnt entitled to JSA. This was because although i have worked since i was 16 years old (am now 31),i had taken 2 years out when i had my son and therefore hadnt paid n.i for 2 years, I pointed out i had been working for 2 years since then but because it was not 2 complete tax years it didnt matter. Luckly for me i had a new job within a month.

fresian_cow

It might be worth considering whether help with mortgage interest is worth more that JSA conts as this 70p per week should allow for some help with that after 13 weeks. I definitely recomend talking to CAB

trevormax

RAS wrote: »

Be very careful with these as most pay a pitiful mileage if any, do not pay for time spent travelling between clients and are essentially zero hours contracts.

There is no guarantee of work and it is likely to be short sessions at intervals in the morning, nothing, then a rush at lunch-time followed by nothing until the evening, when they get several sessions which overlap.

So the worker could get a few hours pay but be on and off duty any time from 6am to 8pm day after day. Which makes finding other work to tie in and push up the hours almost impossible.

Most of this is true and most of these issues can be worked around.

My mother works in a home care for the elderly place. She gets plenty of work given to her, often she will do 12 hour days and gets £500 net/week. She does roughly 60 - 70 hours per week though so it is hard. It is true she has no guarantee of her hours but being a driver, she usually has no problems getting the hours.

Some of her travel time is paid for by the employer but not all. She does get terrible travel expense payments as you have said. These are 5p/mile for postcode mileage which means she gets about £15 for 400-500 ACTUAL miles (different from postcode mileage). HOWEVER, this is helped by the tax she gets back from HMRC. Last year it was £1100 and it will be roughly the same this year.

She got her self a cheap runnaround ford KA (cost £300) and the money she will get back from HMRC this year covers a good chunk of the fuel she has used. If you go down this road (pardon the pun) make sure you have detailed, daily mileage records and copies of your rota if possible to cover your !!! if HMRC ask questions. Also factor in car running costs like insurance etc.

If you can drive, have a car and you can do the job, there is plenty of work available in the private care sector. Many councils are shedding their contracts and the private sector is moving in to take up the work.

KimYeovil

He is expected to live on £503 per month or £115 per week. That is a lot more than the 70p you are suggesting.

Nara

My partner got 10p a week JSA after being made redundant lol! But we didn't have to pay any council tax and also having an open JSA claim allowed us to claim for mortgage help, so they paid 'most' of the interest on our mortgage. I rang our mortgage provider who let us have interest only after doing an income/outgoings questionnaire. So we managed to scrape by, mind you my bf did get a decent payout from the redunancy and we had to spend alot of this on living as we could only apply for stuff after 3 months or so. Best to ring and find out ASAP

Jowo_2

trevormax wrote: »

Most of this is true and most of these issues can be worked around.

My mother works in a home care for the elderly place. She gets plenty of work given to her, often she will do 12 hour days and gets £500 net/week. She does roughly 60 - 70 hours per week though so it is hard. It is true she has no guarantee of her hours but being a driver, she usually has no problems getting the hours. .

A lot of the contracts we saw for care work takes place in the clients own home rather than in a care home with multiple residents.

A lot of the vacancies were for 'bank' staff to cover staff sick leave/holidays or had no guaranteed hours and no fixed area of work - the care worker has to cover multiple locations.

We didn't see many full time or part time roles with fixed hours. They seemed pretty much 'you won't know where you are working, when or for how long and have to totally at our beck and call'. Even if the vacancy was located in a single care home (rather than clients homes) it was still pretty much 'you have to be fully flexible with our needs and can expect to work anytime'.

I only say all this because the standard response to someone seeking employment is 'care homes are always looking for staff' whereas the reality, in my local city anyway, is that they are largely looking for experienced, car owning, qualified carers who don't mind not knowing when there next shift is coming from, how long or where it is.

fluffymovie

It sounds like the benefits advice line would expect a joint claim for Jobseeker's Allowance income based to be assessed and this could be because the partner works less than 24 hrs per week.

JSA IB is a passported benefit and so this would enable them to claim full Council Tax. It also means things like free prescriptions, mortgage interest after 13 weeks etc.

Working Tax Credit may also be an option and so they shoudl contact HMRC on 0845 3003900 and enquire.

I think it is terrifying and the number of people I am seeing make claims for Hb /CTB who are in this situation is growing.

They should make claims for benefit as soon as possible and I think you can claim JSA online now in some areas.