can anyone advise please re: JSA

slowandsteady_2

Good evening,

thanks for reading.

I have a question im hoping someone can help me with. I work as a home carer and visit clients assisting with personal care/meal preparation/shopping/laundry etc. It is a condition of my job that i have a car as i obviously have to travel around the borough to attend to clients.

The problem is i no longer have access to a car in the very near future (long boring story). I am the only earner in our house, and while i dont earn a lot as i have a 'zero hours' contract so may have 2 hours one week and 22 hours the next, we get by.

What i need to know is will i be eligible to apply for JSA when i no longer have access to a car? I mean i will technically still have a job but cant do the job because of the car situation, so does that make me ineligible for JSA or will i be sanctioned or something equally awful? That is assuming i don't get another job first. I find it difficult to get advice as i am on a zero hours contract to start with, which for some reason seems to complicate things.

I am trying not to panic just yet but i am certainly worried as my wage, as low as it may be has to support me, hubby and our toddler at the moment. I have applied for a few other jobs which i am hoping to hear from but even if im lucky to get one, i have in the past waited three months to start a job because of the time sometimes taken with Criminal Records checks, so i am not expecting to start straight away, and while i know JSA claims can take ages, i just need to know if i even have that safety net or not.

I would be grateful for any advice that can be offered to me.

Thanks x

Bogof_Babe

You say you are on a zero hours contract, which I take to mean you are employed by someone? If they sack you because you can't do your job any longer then I'd say you'd have a good case for claiming JSA, although it might be sanctioned as they could say you made yourself intentionally jobless by getting rid of your car.

McKneff

Would you have to leave your job if you didnt have a car.
If so you 'technically' wouldnt have a job.

Not sure about the JSA, sorry

slowandsteady_2

yes i am employed but they only offer a zero hours contract because of the nature of the business-older people going into hospital, residential homes etc and therefore a full package of care being lost all of a sudden, so they can't guarantee a certain amount of hours. They wouldnt sack me as such i would just be 'unavailable' for ever until either i confirmed i definately couldnt return and had to put my notice in or they just took me off the computer rota system. I suppose its similar to agency work in a way. In terms of the car business, i have no choice but to have a car for the job, i have the use if my dad's car which isnt possible any longer due to his own commitments and the unpredictable nature of my job making his own life difficult with the short notice etc i sometimes get. Its such a shame because i like what i do, but can't afford my own car because of how little i earn most months.

We have only ever claimed JSA once for a couple of months, which was a perfectly straightforward run of the mill claim ages ago, hence my ignorance about it all, but from having read about it on here i can see it can be a nightmare and that is why i am so worried. I am preparing for worst case scenario as I too am worried they will assume i have deliberately got rid of a car which isnt the case, and that they will not allow us to claim.

BAFE

i'm sorry I can't help with your JSA question I just wanted to say I'm shocked that you have a zero hours contract. How does that work with tax credits?

I only ask because I have applied for a home carers job but am waiting to hear from them. I need 16 hours work a week so I hope a zero hours contract isn't offered to me. I'm already reeling from the shock that they pay £0.25 a mile in mileage. It costs me more than that to run my car.

One more thing, is it true that carers don't get paid for their time spent travelling between jobs?

Sorry, caused more probs than I helped with.

slowandsteady_2

BAFE wrote: »

i'm sorry I can't help with your JSA question I just wanted to say I'm shocked that you have a zero hours contract. How does that work with tax credits?

I only ask because I have applied for a home carers job but am waiting to hear from them. I need 16 hours work a week so I hope a zero hours contract isn't offered to me. I'm already reeling from the shock that they pay £0.25 a mile in mileage. It costs me more than that to run my car.

One more thing, is it true that carers don't get paid for their time spent travelling between jobs?

Sorry, caused more probs than I helped with.

Its fine lol, i dont mind answering. Every home care company i am aware of locally have the same zero hours contract or you give them your availability and they decide if they have the hours available for you or if Mrs Smith or Mrs Jones should have those hours. I have no set hours but because i am a senior carer and always have to cover sickness etc there is usually something. I average 10-20 hrs of actual paid work per week. When i say paid work, i literally get paid for the time i am at someone's property providing care. There is a log in telephone system most companies use (im not sure about the local council though) where you must enter your PIN and i am literally paid by the minute-i.e. if i am at a 30 minute call for 26 minutes i get paid the 26 minutes not the 30 mins. I dont get paid if i am on my way to a client and they ring to cancel the call. I dont get paid mileage by my company, i am supposed to claim it from the HMRC at the end of the tax year but i dont earn a lot so pay next to no tax so doubt i personally will be able to claim. I dont get paid for travel time. I am often out all day, 6.30am until 6.30pm and beyond but may only get paid for 3 or 4 hours due to the gaps between calls, the travel time etc. Between about 12 noon and 2.30pm is very quiet but it isnt worth my travelling home and back out again.

It is a strange situation, ive never wrked like this but is good if you need (an awful lot) of flexibility. But you can see from above why i no longer have an obliging father and the use of his car.

If you want to work in care, i would suggest googling your local nursing agencies and applying to them as a health care asst/care worker. You will get paid more and have more say in your hours and use less petrol etc. Plus you will be at work from say 7am-3pm or whatever your shift is and thats it, no travelling all over. Ilve my job and will be sorry to leave if it comes to that but it certainly isnt the ideal work situation

slowandsteady_2

BAFE wrote: »

i'm sorry I can't help with your JSA question I just wanted to say I'm shocked that you have a zero hours contract. How does that work with tax credits?

I only ask because I have applied for a home carers job but am waiting to hear from them. I need 16 hours work a week so I hope a zero hours contract isn't offered to me. I'm already reeling from the shock that they pay £0.25 a mile in mileage. It costs me more than that to run my car.

One more thing, is it true that carers don't get paid for their time spent travelling between jobs?

Sorry, caused more probs than I helped with.

Sorry in terms of tax credits, they asked me to provide them with an estimate of my income due to me having a zero hours contract, which i did based on a 16 hour week, so far im bang on with my estimate probably im earning a bit less. I also lost my 30 hour element of wtc which was unfortunate. By the way the car i use is a diesel and i put around £30 a week in it just for work

Hope thats helped a bit