No job seeker entitlement

Lou3000

Hi

My 62-year-old husband lost his job just before Christmas. He worked 4 days a week for a local garage. He has a tiny pension from when he was in the Navy and this just covers our second mortgage. I work full-time.

He has been told by the Job Centre that he is not entitled to job seeker's allowance because he was not paying Class 1 contributions on his stamp. That is the fault of his last employer - my husband assumed they were taking out the correct amount for his contributions from his wages!

He has always worked and even when he was self-employed for a few years, he paid his full contributions.

Anybody got any suggestions as to how he can sort this out? Luckily, with me working full-time we can go for a wee while yet, but we have no savings and we live in the Highlands where everything is more expensive. There are very few jobs - actually, none at all at the moment - and the likelihood of him getting another job any time soon is - well, unlikely!

Any suggestions as to where we can look for advice. He phoned CAB today but there was no reply so he's trying again tomorrow.

dmg24

Was the employer making any deductions?

Oldernotwiser

Are they sure that it's because of contributions record and not because of his pension?

Lou3000

Yes, the employer was making reductions. Unfortunately, they didn't do wage slips so my husband needs to find his P60 - if he can't find that he'll have to get a wages statement from the IR.

The firm he worked for were just a small family firm and - to put it kindly - they were somewhat disorganised!

MrsManda

He can get a statement of account for his National insurance contributions from the HMRC by calling 0845 302 1479 (textphone 0845 915 3296)
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/BeginnersGuideToTax/NationalInsurance/IntroductiontoNationalInsurance/DG_190052

But having his P60s would be his best option.

Self employment contributions are Class 2 so don't count towards contribution based JSA.

Lou3000

He paid Class 1 contributions when he was self-employed - for a safety-net against something like this! It's his most recent employer who seems to have made the error.

It just rankles because we know people who are claiming benefits because they are 'disabled' but in actual fact, they are far more fit than my husband! He has Type 1 Diabetes and needs to eat regularly during the day: he worked at our local supermarket for a few years and couldn't do evening shifts because it put his blood sugars awry! The physical drain of him standing for hours on his feet also made him quite ill.

I'll check that link you supplied MrsManda and see what's what.

Sorry for the moan!

Newly_retired

At 62 have you thought about Pension Credit?

morledge142

i am in the same boat.

after finish work following car accident i found i cant get any jsa etc because i was not paying ni as a student apparently or they picked the only year when i had pt job so was not earning enough.

it is annoying as you cant pay the ni to get benefits either.
a taxi driver i used said it happened to his wife what happened to you.

i now have no money and we have to live off hubby 3 days a weejk salary until a dla claim comes good hopefully.

its a pain. they expect you to live on fresh air. the lady at job centre said we would be better off handing keys in to mortgage so we can get housing etc as we cant get anything else either as hubby is just above low income limit.

Oldernotwiser

Newly_retired wrote: »

At 62 have you thought about Pension Credit?

The OP herself works full time, so that won't be an option.

happy35

Your husband needs to contact JobSeekers Allowance and find out which year he is deficient in contributions, if it is one of the years that he is self employed this will be right as you pay Class2 contributions when you are self employed and these do not qualify you for JSA Contribution based.

If it is one of the years that he is self employed you can ask a member of staff to check his NI record online, if this is still deficient then he can ask them to raise a 'file' with HMRC for this to be investigated.

If the garage is still trading the Jobseekers Allowance or your husband could try and obtain earnings and contribution details from his previous employer or whoever did the wages for that employer

Lou3000

Thanks all for you kind replies (I've just spent all evening with our finance details making up a spreadsheet - what fun!)

He is going to phone the IR tomorrow re wages statement (he cannot find his P60) and from that find out how much his previous employer was paying for his contributions.

Once we find that out, we can see were the problem might lie.

Isn't it sick-making that the banks got us into this mess and, if he can't get a job in the next few months and we have probs with the mortgage, it could be that we'd have to hand the house to the bank (nobody is buying houses at the moment, are they?!) - so the banks are in a win-win situation! If we tried that practice in 'civvy' street, they'd lock us up!

Double annoying because even though I have rheumatoid arthritis I refuse to give in and continue to work full-time. I could just have had a fit of the vapours and demanded benefits but I didn't. I prefer to work as it really does help with a positive attitude towards the disease. Anyway, if they won't give decent benefits to wounded soldiers, I don't see why I should be given special treatment!

Will let you know how we get on.