Ad-hoc work on zero hours contract: How will my jsa & housing benefit claim function?

StatuteBarringRules

I was offered a job back in October last year, however as the company took nearly 3months doing my references and vetting by the time they completed it they had given that job vacancy to someone else (1 of their current ad-hoc workers),
and said they could only offer me ad-hoc work until a permenant vacancy came up.

I was extremely sad and upset about this, however this job at that specific site is the job ive wanted for many many years, and am intending to keep my longterm career positition,
and so i was willing to accept this situation.


From 19th December untill last weekend i managed to get continous work due to having being trainedup to work at 2 different sites, and to do both the day and night shift at each.
Although as they only give 4-6days work each time i had to phone up the head office manager every single week and ask where i could work the following week, suggesting, requesting and basically hassling him till he gave me work at 1 of the sites even though they had sufficent staff already that week.

However sadly i cannot keep on doing that anymore as eventually the headoffice manager will just get so fedup and tell me to stop contacting him.
And so im now going to just have to sit back and wait for them to contact me asking me to work at site X for X many days/weeks,
but during the weeks which they give me no work i will need to be claiming benefits to provide me with income.



Im hopeful that since im currently trained at 2 sites, 1 site having 10 employees and the other 6, with each employee entitled to 4weeks holiday per year,
that there would be 64weeks (448days) of available work for me per year (although that would only be if every single employee takes their full 4weeks holiday entitlement).

And so as i only need 240days work per year to give me fulltime continous work (5days work on 48weeks per year),
it means that providing all of of those 16 employees take atleast 3weeks holiday leave per year i would have fulltime continous work.


But as my biggest and main priority before anything else has to be to secure a guaranteed income every week of the year (which is not dependant on anyone else opting to take their holiday entitlement) im basically going to have to have a continous JSA & Housing benefit claim running all year through,
but hopefully with me never actually having to accept any money from if im able to get atleast 20days work per month,
so would just the benefits claim setup there as my financial safety net.



But as ive only ever claimed benefits while being fully unemployed,
i was wondering if anyone can explain exactly how the process works and how it will function please??


From my current understanding it would work like this-

1. I make my claim for JSA and Housing benefit this afternoon, saying on the form that i am ''currently not working any hours at all'',
although i have a verbal-agreement with a company that i should get ad-hoc work at some point in the future, and that they hold my p45.


2a. If over the next 2weeks i get offered no work hours from the company then when i go to sign-on i declare ''not done any paid work during these last 2weeks'' / Don't need to take any action as per my housing benefits claim,
and so would get the full benefits money for both claims.

OR

2b. If over the next 2weeks i get offered 45hours work per week, each of the 2weeks, then when i go to sign-on next (if im not working on my sign-on day) i declare ''Ive worked 90hours during these last 2weeks'',
and so i would get no jsa money paid to me that day for those 2weeks just ended + the jobcentre would notify the housing benefits department that i do not require HB for those 2weeks just gone.

But both of my benefits claims would remain active, and so if during the next 2weeks i got zero hours when i went to sign-on itd just be the same process as in step 2a.

OR

2c. If during those 2weeks i got 48hours week 1, but then zero hours week 2, when i went to sign on id declare ''i worked an average of 24hours per during these last 2weeks and my hourly pay was £8.90 per hour''.

They would then say ''Ok as you did less than 30hours per week you will get paid £5 for each week, but then as your salary was more than JSA you wont get any extra jsa money.

And they would also automatically notify the housing benefit department that my net after tax income for those 2weeks was £334,
wheras my income from jsa+counciltaxbenefit+housingbenefit for those 2weeks would have been £534,
and so the housing benefits department would need to pay me £200 for those 2weeks to ensure i wasn't ending up worse off overall.


And that would be the process every 2weeks for however many months or years it takes till a permenant vacancy arises for me.



Is that all correct about exactly how it works though?
Or have i misunderstood/imagined any aspects of how it worked?



Thanks

casterweb

Firstly, congratulations in finding yourself a job in very tough market conditions.

However, in my experience of doing ad-hoc temporary work (2/3 days a week, sometimes no work available), I found the whole process of this type of work and signing on an absolute nightmare. I seemed to spend all my spare time, of which there was plenty, either phoning up the DWP or the council (council tax), trying to sort out problems.

In the end neither the DWP or the council knew what the situation was. Therein lies the problem. Large organisations can't react to day to day changes. I would tell them I worked for a couple of days that week, but wouldn't get any response for up to a month. Multiply that week after week and even I didn't where I stood!

Maybe you local Jobcentre and council react quicker. I hope so.

IMHO, if your hours of work average out to the level you want over time, then you might be better off signing off altogether.

Incidentally, many people take holidays at the same time eg school holidays, xmas etc, have you factored this in?

All the best in what you choose to do.

StatuteBarringRules

casterweb wrote: »

Firstly, congratulations in finding yourself a job in very tough market conditions.

However, in my experience of doing ad-hoc temporary work (2/3 days a week, sometimes no work available), I found the whole process of this type of work and signing on an absolute nightmare. I seemed to spend all my spare time, of which there was plenty, either phoning up the DWP or the council (council tax), trying to sort out problems.

In the end neither the DWP or the council knew what the situation was. Therein lies the problem. Large organisations can't react to day to day changes. I would tell them I worked for a couple of days that week, but wouldn't get any response for up to a month. Multiply that week after week and even I didn't where I stood!

Maybe you local Jobcentre and council react quicker. I hope so.

IMHO, if your hours of work average out to the level you want over time, then you might be better off signing off altogether.

Incidentally, many people take holidays at the same time eg school holidays, xmas etc, have you factored this in?

All the best in what you choose to do.

Hi and thanks for your reply.

Thankfully due to the industry i work in (Security) only 1 person is allowed to be on holiday at any 1 time,
and so there would never be a situation at site A for example where 2 people were on holiday for 3weeks, but then no-one on holiday for the next 2weeks,
itd always be 1 off for 1st 3weeks, then other off for next 3weeks, meaning id get 6weeks of available work.

And also during the busiest time (December) when no-one is allowed to book holiday leave they still require additional employees anyways,
so i shouldn't be affected too much by the seasons.


Although i am also requesting to be trainedup at 1-2more sites,
each which has roughly 6-8 employees.

So that will double the amount of available working weeks available for me each year,
which will be very useful since if during Febuary an employee at site A, site B and site C all decide to take 1weeks holiday at the same time,
meaning 3weeks of the potential available work would become only 1week in reality for me.


Ideally i would love to just work permenantly fulltime 48hours per week at Site A and so not have to constantly muck around with all this stuff,
and ive already basically drilled my name and my desire for that site into the headoffice manager's head,
and have been told by him a few times that whenever a fulltime vacancy does next arise there i will be 1st in-line for it.

However until that time comes i cannot risk resigning from this company to work for a different 1,
as i would then lose my direct access to working at that site (or at any of their other sites), especially when they are now officially the biggest security company in the world and so have contracts the most sites.



And my method for dealing with the benefits departments is to simply mirror exactly what they do in taking a very very long time to process all and any changes to people's claims,
by doing the exact same thing myself back to them.

As its far far better and more practical for me to be 2-3weeks slow in informing them of a few weeks work that i did,
get more money than required to cover my living expenses for those 2weeks, and then simply repay it back to them/have them deduct that from mt next 2weeks money....,
Instead of me informing them too fast of changes, initially getting less money than im entitled to, and then having to wait 2-3weeks to get the full amount of money while not having enough money to live off!

StatuteBarringRules

As you said you also were in this same situation before though, can i check if the way that i understand the process to work is correct or not please??


As the key element that im uncertain about is if the jobcentre would-

Automatically inform the council every 2weeks about my hours/income, and the council would then ''calculate and update my money for those 2weeks accordingly, but then revert back to the standard full amount of money until told otherwise again by the jobcentre''?

Not just

Have no internal communication with the council meaning i have to do it myself every 2weeks.
OR
Simply say to the council ''He worked this week so get gets no jsa this week (without specifying to the council the amount of money i earnt),
and so then endingup with the council freezing or terminate my benefits claim, instead of paying me the housing benefit but at a lower rate for those 2weeks?