JSA - self employed question

joyfull

Am I correct in thinking that JSA would not be allowed to someone who has been self employed and paying class 2 NI contributions and has savings over £16,000?

If that is correct, is it expected then that the savings must be used to support oneself?

Thank you.

Hammyman

Correct as you are only entitled to claim income based JSA and savings come into the calculations.

But TBH, you're self employed. You should, and obviously have, be putting money aside to cover you when trading times are hard. Now is that time so you live on that money whilst you look for other business. Its either that or you take the mickey mouse self employed line and pack up the business because of a few weeks or a months no or low income.

joyfull

Thank you for the JSA information Hammyman.

The rest of your response was not asked for and is based on many false assumptions.

How are you, by the way, dealing with constant physical pain and weakness?

Edit.
I actually feel very angry with your response. You know NOTHING about my situation and my life. I am making a huge effort to remain self employed and feel very concerned about my future. How dare you lecture me on how to run my business. No-one can ever know what life is like for another person. If you're able to make a success of your employment, well bully for you. I've never spoken like this on the forum before, but I'm fed up with the superior judgemental attitudes of some posters.

ManicMum

I know it is a real bummer when you have savings but are told to use them up before you can claim. This is one of my bugbears. yet as we all know, there are those out there who waste their money, spend it on themselves, their homes, holidays, cars, take aways etc but when they fall on hard times, they are able to claim assistance straightaway. You are punished for your own good management of your money. I think it is wrong and you should be able to claim.

You will need a tough skin on here. There are a lot of people who think themselves superior. I have had people tell me they wouldn't converse with me as I obviously knew nothing. Maybe on that particular point but maybe I knew a hell of a lot more than them on another subject.

Hope to see you on here again soon.

cassieB57

You could take the view that the whole point of savings is to have something for a 'rainy day' so there is no need to survive on benefits. The savings limit is (IMO) fairly generous (I can remember it being £8000) I'd far rather have thousands in the bank and sit back smugly using that rather than struggling on 65 quid a week
Or is it just me?

Hammyman

joyfull wrote: »

Thank you for the JSA information Hammyman.

The rest of your response was not asked for and is based on many false assumptions.

How are you, by the way, dealing with constant physical pain and weakness?

Finally get off to sleep around 3-5am, get up around 9 but sometimes as late as 1pm with my mouth completely dry and my tongue welded to the roof of it because of the pills I take. Averaging around 35-40hrs a week sleep but you get used to it after a while On pain killers strong enough to make the missus sick when she decided to take one for a stonking headache she has - she won't be doing that again I've made some adjustments to the workshop which are helping and some of them are actually quite silly little things. Also got someone who is in the same line of work who comes with me buying and does the fetching and carrying as well although the guys at the auction used to help - I got over being embarrassed to ask for help ages ago.

Edit.
I actually feel very angry with your response. You know NOTHING about my situation and my life. I am making a huge effort to remain self employed and feel very concerned about my future. How dare you lecture me on how to run my business. No-one can ever know what life is like for another person. If you're able to make a success of your employment, well bully for you. I've never spoken like this on the forum before, but I'm fed up with the superior judgemental attitudes of some posters.

If you want to take it as a personal attack, you need to wind your neck in. I was actually saying that you have done what a self employed person should be doing but many on here apparently seem to think they don't need to and saying it was either do that or take the easy out and they're the only two options so what else was I supposed to put?

bargain_hunter_1964

Hi,
In answer to your original question posted, then contribution JSA is not payable to a self employed person who has paid class 2 contributions in the relevant tax years that the claim is based on. As regards means tested JSA there is a cut off point at which £16k is the capital cut off for help. When savings go below £16k, then tariff applies whereby £1 per week is counted as income for every £250 or part thereof between £8000 - £15999.
If your company is still managing to trade but income very low then it may be worth checking out as to whether you qualify for working tax credits as this may be a possibility as its based on taxable income only and therefore will only take in your taxable interest rather than savings into a/c.....this would only apply if you had children or no children and worked over 30 hrs per week and aged 25+. Hope this helps and wish you all the best of luck and hope your business improves soon.
Also although you won't qualify for contribution based JSA on class 2 contributions they do actually count towards any claim for Employment support allowance contribution based, so if for any reason you become unfit for work it might be worth making a claim.

Also if you have no income from the business a nd are not working then by making a claim to JSA ev en though you will not receive any income will at least keep your national insurance contributions up to date as you recieve a class 1 credit whilst you make the claim for JSA and meet the criteria to recieve the credit ie follow the advice and support of job centre plus in the respect you are job seeking and making the claim in the prescribed manner etc...

Take care

joyfull

Thanks for the very informative replies, in particular bargainhunter.

Hammyman, it's good you've got pain under control. Just remember it's not that way for everyone. Some pain simply will not respond - then imagine trying to earn a living. I won't even consider going down the incapacity benefit (or whatever it is now) route as from what I read, you have to be virtually unconscious to be eligible. I have a body that is ageing frighteningly fast and have 11 yrs until I will receive state pension. My very hard earned savings were to hopefully prop me up in old age, and I mean replace a washing machine or get the roof fixed, NOT meals out and hairdos.

Oh well, that's my sorry tale! I constantly remind myself that I could be existing under plastic eating a handful of rice a day in Darfur. That get's things into immediate perspective and sorts out any 'victim identity' rubbish!