going abroad and signing on question

bendix

bendix wrote: »

If you can afford to travel overseas, you don't need benefits.

It's my opinion, and as someone who pays roughly 60% of their income in direct taxes (forgetting, for a moment, VAT etc), it's an opinion I think I have earned the right to express.

Strider590

^^ Only these days where jobs can't be found by walking down the high street, knocking on doors or looking for signs in windows, we rely upon the internet, our network of friends and occasionally the local paper.

A concept which my dinosaur of a father cannot get into his thick skull when he's saying "get out there, knock on doors and find a job".

There's no reason at all why you can't be in another country searching the jobcentre website on a laptop computer.

I myself and im sure many others will attest to the fact that at some point during unemployment, there comes a time when you really need a short break to clear your head and re-evaluate your job searching strategy.

bendix

Strider590 wrote: »

^^ Only these days where jobs can't be found by walking down the high street, knocking on doors or looking for signs in windows, we rely upon the internet, our network of friends and occasionally the local paper.

A concept which my dinosaur of a father cannot get into his thick skull when he's saying "get out there, knock on doors and find a job".

There's no reason at all why you can't be in another country searching the jobcentre website on a laptop computer.

I myself and im sure many others will attest to the fact that at some point during unemployment, there comes a time when you really need a short break to clear your head and re-evaluate your job searching strategy.

Great . . just don't expect me to pay for that break.

dickydonkin

Strider590;43733110
There's no reason at all why you can't be in another country searching the jobcentre website on a laptop computer.
I myself and im sure many others will attest to the fact that at some point during unemployment, there comes a time when you really need a short break to clear your head and re-evaluate your job searching strategy.

Absolutely!

And not only to re-evaluate your job seeking strategy either - but retains ones sanity as well.

hcb42

bendix wrote: »

Great . . just don't expect me to pay for that break.

You won't be. Claimants JSA stops if they go on holiday overseas so they are not "paid" by anyone

If people are on disability benefits etc are they not allowed holidays either, by the same logic?...

WPN

Read the Jobseekers Act 1995... Section 1 (2)(i) reads "[Subject to the provisions of this Act, a claimant is entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance if he–] is in Great Britain."

All you need to do is sign off before you go and ring up to make a rapid reclaim when you get back - takes approx 20 minutes from picking up phone to hanging up.

bendix

hcb42 wrote: »

You won't be. Claimants JSA stops if they go on holiday overseas so they are not "paid" by anyone

If people are on disability benefits etc are they not allowed holidays either, by the same logic?...

You do know what JSA stands for, right?

Of course the same doesnt apply.

dickydonkin

bendix wrote: »

You do know what JSA stands for, right?

Of course the same doesnt apply.

Hang on a minute bendix - please re-evaluate your earlier quote:

If you can afford to travel overseas, you don't need benefits.

The above quote appears to generalise ALL benefits as you did not stipulate JSA or any other for that matter.

So - are you now suggesting that those who are just on JSA should not travel overseas? - despite claimants not being entitled to such a benefit when they travel abroad - but it is OK for other benefit recipients to travel? (I have no issues whatsoever with that by the way).

I am fully aware that JSA is not an entitlement when outside of the UK - despite I and many others who do or did go abroad when they were/are unemployed and searched for jobs by the internet when they were away - so technically they were jobseeking.

Are you also suggesting that those parents who leave their kids at home with their grannies when going on holiday should relinquish their entitlement to child benefit or any other benefit for that matter for the time they are away as well?

A benefit is a benefit whichever way you look at it as it comes out of the taxpayers coffers - again, I will reiterate that there are far too many people on these forums who tar every unemployed person with the same brush. - I do accept as I have seen with my own eyes that there are some who attend 'jobcentreplus' (a misnomer if ever there was one) who are a complete waste of space

I have a relative who has not worked for over 25 years despite being capable of doing so - he fits into the 'waste of space' category - but he can afford to go to the pub most nights, gamble and lives virtually rent and council tax free. It is the system that is wrong that allows this and there are always going to be those that will exploit a flawed system.

Again, generalising every unemployed person is usually done by those who have never been out of work in such a financial climate we have now.

Well at least the unemployment figures are down (according to the 'government') and there are a few jobs going in some London cafes - so all is right with the world.

Scant comfort for us up here living in the worst jobs blackspot in the country (figures released this week).

So please clarify or rectify your earlier post which suggests that you don't need any benefits if you can afford to travel overseas (your words - not mine) - or were you just referring to unemployed people (such as the OP) receiving JSA? And should all of those people who receive benefits of any kind relinquish their entitlement if they do travel outside of the UK.

lexilex

You have to laugh at some of the replies to this topic.

I have been unemployed since last October. I apply for 4 or 5 jobs daily, and am beyond desperate to work. I am due to go on holiday in 7 weeks time.

The holiday was booked a long time ago, with a large deposit paid upfront. I would have lost that deposit if I had cancelled, so decided to go away, and my OH has paid for the majority of the holiday.

We have no spending money, and have already started to collect food to take with us. I don't care about doing anything once we are there, but to just be able to not think about how crap things are at home will be great.

I don't think I have ever needed a break so badly. Job hunting is soul destroying, and this break is the only thing keeping me going.

On the other hand, I have a friend who left school at 16, popped two kids out and has never worked a day in her life and has no intention of doing so, as soon as her youngest is old enough to start school she will have another. She is going on a two week holiday this summer with her children, probably costing three or four times more than my holiday.

FBaby

Your link between child benefits and JSA doesn't make sense. To qualify for CB, you need to have children, that's all. The assumption is that the money will be spent on the kids. Even if a family earn £100K, they can spend the money on the essential need of the child, it means that either they will spend the extra money they make on themselves, or choose to provide more for their children. Going abroad without the children makes no difference, they don't become childless because they are away.

To quality for JSA, you have to be looking for and be available to start a job. Those are the conditions. If you are abroad, you can't start a new job end of it. As for those going on holiday during that time, that is their business how they are funding it, but it is indeed absolutely right that they should not receive JSA for that period.