Please can anyone advise re: JSA?

slowandsteady_2

Hi everyone,

thanks for reading,

i am employed on a zero hours contract as a home carer, averaging 16-20 hours a week. I was off sick for 3 and a bit weeks so received SSP and a small wage for the hours i did before cut off day for pay this month.

Since working at this job (10 months) we have really struggled to manage as its just me working at present, and we have eaten up what savings we had to cover the monthly bills but more importantly keep my car on the road as its a requirement of my job due to the obvious travelling inbetween clients.

We are now at a point where we have not enough money for the bills this month, which as well as the usual bills includes my car MOT which i know is going to be unaffordable as i have a 14 year old car which has plenty of problems. I have been trying to put a litle aside but have had to use it for bills, my gas and electric bills being the main problem as my electric DD has gone from £25 a month to £100 a month due to our usage, which im shocked at as i thought we'd use more gas but thats another story.

Anyway, i have just been and done my usual monthly spreadsheet and i cannot make ends meet anymore, i have had to cancel direct debits such as life and home insurance, and i am going to have to cancel my car insurance premium too, basically everything that isnt gas, electric, water, rent and council tax (which we do get some help with). I will have enough money for the absolute essentials and groceries but not for diesel (£70-100 a month depending on where i work), my MOT and half my other bills which i thought id already got down to the bare minimum.

I have nobody we can borrow off and anyway i couldnt pay them back.

What i am basically asking is, will i be able to claim JSA? I cannot work without a car and i cannot drive a car illegally without MOT etc as i obviously dont fancy a criminal record. I am aware of sanctioning if a person leaves a job but i am in a terrible position where i am not planning to leave my job-i love my job-but i literally have no means of doing it. I am terrified we will be sanctioned and be left with no JSA.

In addition, would it be me or my husband who should be the one to sign on if we apply? I am 16 weeks pregnant so would eventually be on maternity leave/SMP/MA whichever, at some point and i feel it may be difficult for me to find something else whilst pregnant, as i will have to leave at some point.

Im really worried to the point i feel ill, and im not sure what to do now. Ive been trying really hard to keep us going and to keep my car on the road but there just isnt any money left to juggle and split around now. Im so grateful for tax credits as i dont think we'd have money for shopping this month without them

There is me, my hubby and our toddler i am trying to support.

Thanks for reading

Darlyd

Hey I am also a care worker, It's hard going, wages are crap, but I also love my job too. Well done . Care work can be so flexible, can they offer you extra hours/calls? A care worker I work with do a max of 25 hours per week to claim tax credits, and his wife stays at home with their children.

hope your car is ok, It's so important I know this, Mine is at the garage at the moment, thankfully they have a courtesy car for me.

Is there a reason why your partner can not work?

Are you getting enough tax credits? Housing benefit? Have you had a look for cheaper elec/gas companies? ( There is a website where you can check, but don't know web address sorry).

HappyMJ

If you lose the car and can't afford to replace it, have asked your employer for a hire car and they have refused to provide one at their expense then you won't be sanctioned if you can't do your work. Don't worry about that. Technically you don't resign, you keep turning up at work as far as possible even if by public transport and then you'll eventually be let go as you can't actually visit any clients of the employer in a timely manner.

slowandsteady_2

thankyou for replies. There is no courtesy car system (dont think i picked the best company!), my rota covers the whole of the borough and public transport isnt an option due to some of my locations being rural, the timing of the calls being imperative to the clients health and well being etc, i have looked into it but its impossible. It is a crisis if we are a carer down, or running late (a bit less of a crisis but has a significant impact) hence the use of a car being a reqirement of the position and contract.

When we had our dd my hubby got made redundant-as i was in hospital of all places-i had a better job then so we decided he would be a SAHD, as we've both always worked shifts childcare was a problem, but i was going to just work p/t after dd came around hubby's hours but i had to go back f/t. Its more the effect of shift work and no childminder thats forced one of us to stay at home, it wasnt the original plan. Hubby has an LGV licence but no digital tacho so cant find employment doing that easily, and he hasnt done it for a couple of years now and companies like recent experience otherwise, its warehouse work for him, which ive been looking for on direct.gov website but there's so little of it compared to a few years ago. He will have more luck than me finding something overall though, and is looking, but as usual its finding the right hours more than anything so we can both work. I think he will have to go on agency, which again puts us in a difficult position childcare wise. The trouble is with my job, like this week i have 17 hours work spread over three whole days-i only get paid when i log into the automated system at each clients home, via the telephone, so although i have only 17 hours it takes me out of the house for three whole days due to the travelling. This makes him finding set hours difficult because i work shifts that take me out from 7am ish-10pm ish, and my rota can change without notice.

I just am at a loss really, im so worried about claiming anything as im so scared we will be sanctioned, ive only ever claimed JSA once for 2 months and vowed id never go through that ordeal again no matter what i have to do, and ive now been left without much choice but with the fear of getting into trouble, i feel like a criminal!

Hubby just came in, i told him ive done the spreadsheet and there isnt enough money anymore and ive had to cancel direct debits and there isnt any money for the MOT, he said to just transfer some from the savings-i told him there's none left to transfer, its gone. He knows we've been £200-£300 a month short for everything so i dont know how he thinks the bills have been being paid until now, im not superwoman!

In terms of benefits we are getting what we should as they took my payslips when we applied, but i still have to find rent and council tax, which is hard when my wages fluctuate.

I must sound like im such a moaner, im not honestly, im just worried, incredibly worried.