"This is how much the law says you need to live on"

GotNoMoney

_____________________________________________________

Main question:

When the Department for Work and Pensions send you a letter and it says (actual quote, verbatim) ...

"This is how much the law says you need to live on"

... can anyone point me to this "law" please?

Which Act?

Which sub-section?

I want to see a breakdown of what is allocated for say, the gas bill, electric bill, water rates and so on, including food.

_____________________________________________________

Second question:

You can get "hardship" payments whilst you are not seeking work, so then aren't there people just continually claiming hardship payments and never looking for work? Hardship payments are only £10 a week less than normal Jobseeker's Allowance payments.

How many hardship payments can you claim? An unlimited amount for an unlimited time?

I would look myself, but I am not looking through fifty thousand billion trillion pages of laws that were designed from the outset to make it nearly impossible to clarify anything you have a question about, I wondered if anyone here might know the answers?

HappyMJ

There is no breakdown of costs. Everyone is different. It's £65.45 per week and it's up to you how to spend it. Hopefully sensibly.

I thought hardship payments were about £40 per week for a single person? Can someone confirm this? You can only claim it if you have absolutely no money at all (or at least claim to). You would usually be much better off by working even if self empolyed and claiming tax credits.

GotNoMoney

HappyMJ wrote: »

There is no breakdown of costs.

If they send letters out with "the law says this is how much you need to live on" there obviously is a breakdown of costs somewhere for them to say this in the first place.

Looks like I will be filing a Freedom of Information request.

HappyMJ wrote: »

Everyone is different. It's £65.45 per week and it's up to you how to spend it. Hopefully sensibly.

Everyone is the same in that everyone gets the same amount of money - currently £67.50 a week. I want to know exactly how they arrive at this figure.

HappyMJ wrote: »

I thought hardship payments were about £40 per week for a single person? Can someone confirm this? You can only claim it if you have absolutely no money at all (or at least claim to). You would usually be much better off by working even if self empolyed and claiming tax credits.

I heard it is £10 less so if that is true, I assume it is £57.50 a week, roughly.

How long can you claim that for?

HappyMJ

GotNoMoney wrote: »

If they send letters out with "the law says this is how much you need to live on" there obviously is a breakdown of costs somewhere for them to say this in the first place.

Looks like I will be filing a Freedom of Information request.



Everyone is the same in that everyone gets the same amount of money - currently £67.50 a week. I want to know exactly how they arrive at this figure.



I heard it is £10 less so if that is true, I assume it is £57.50 a week, roughly.

How long can you claim that for?

FOI request has been done already. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/how_the_weekly_jobseekers_allowa

I thought the £67.50 applies from the first benefit payment after 11th april? http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_193028.pdf

MrRedundant

If you put this level of effort into jobhunting it shouldnt be an issue for you for long.

Oldernotwiser

GotNoMoney wrote: »

Everyone is the same in that everyone gets the same amount of money - currently £67.50 a week. I want to know exactly how they arrive at this figure.

Only if they're 25 and over. If not, it's £51 per week.

I am certain that there is no breakdown of figures and cannot see how there possibly could be.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

GotNoMoney wrote: »

If they send letters out with "the law says this is how much you need to live on" there obviously is a breakdown of costs somewhere for them to say this in the first place.

Looks like I will be filing a Freedom of Information request.



Everyone is the same in that everyone gets the same amount of money - currently £67.50 a week. I want to know exactly how they arrive at this figure.



I heard it is £10 less so if that is true, I assume it is £57.50 a week, roughly.

How long can you claim that for?

The best way to think of it .. The government are the law and they state thats how much you have each week to live on.

Jowo_2

MrRedundant wrote: »

If you put this level of effort into jobhunting it shouldnt be an issue for you for long.

To the OP - how did you get on with the jobs that DMG and I posted that you didn't unearth during your visits to the job centre?


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/41559208#Comment_41559208

Does your interest in hardship payment mean you didn't complete your mandatory 4 week work placement in mid January and have been sanctioned or is it just out of curiosity about how the process works for people who have been kicked off JSA for not meeting its conditions?

DCFC79

Interesting thread

just keep n lookin for jobs and apply for them

ohreally

You may find the following insightful...http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/minimum-income-standard-2009-summary.pdf

http://www.minimumincome.org.uk/

cassieB57

GotNoMoney wrote: »

_____________________________________________________

Main question:

When the Department for Work and Pensions send you a letter and it says (actual quote, verbatim) ...

"This is how much the law says you need to live on"

... can anyone point me to this "law" please?

Which Act?

Which sub-section?

I want to see a breakdown of what is allocated for say, the gas bill, electric bill, water rates and so on, including food.

_____________________________________________________

Second question:

You can get "hardship" payments whilst you are not seeking work, so then aren't there people just continually claiming hardship payments and never looking for work? Hardship payments are only £10 a week less than normal Jobseeker's Allowance payments.

How many hardship payments can you claim? An unlimited amount for an unlimited time?

I would look myself, but I am not looking through fifty thousand billion trillion pages of laws that were designed from the outset to make it nearly impossible to clarify anything you have a question about, I wondered if anyone here might know the answers?

1 JSA Regs, reg 83(a) & 86A(a); IS (Gen) Regs, reg 17(1)(a)

1 JSA Regs, Sch 1, para 1; IS (Gen) Regs, Sch 2, para 1

Sorry but I don't know how to post a link