can anyone give me advice please??

essex_girl

Would anyone on this thread be able to assist me. My partner is to be made redundant and receive approx £1,500. Can we claim job seekers straight away or do we have to wait? My partner is 45 years old and I am 50 and we have no children at home now.

Any advice greatly received. Thanks in advance.

ceridwen

Yes is the basic answer - in a word.

It is subject to things like:
- have you got any income of your own? (the DWP expects that even people on very low income will support their partner after the first 6 months of unemployment)

- has he paid in enough NI stamps to be eligible for the 6 months worth of non-means tested benefit anyone can get? (even if they have a partner or over £6,000 "capital").

Don't forget that - whatever your circumstances - your partner will have 3 "waiting days" at the start of the claim (ie people are expected to "live on thin air" for the first 3 days of a claim before benefit kicks in).

essex_girl

thanks for advice

realshannon

from what you have briefly said, providing one of you is still working, the other can claim contribution based jobseekers allowance. this only looks at that one person's national insurance contributions (the person that is making the claim) but is only paid for 6 months, hopefully within that time you will have found another job. the other type of jobseekers is means tested (income based) and that will look at savings, other salary etc etc and if one person is working within a household, that generally means you will, as a household, earn more than the benefit so you would not get anything. however, you potentially could get assistance with rent and council tax via housing and council tax benefits if the income for the household is low enough. if you have a mortgage it isnt an option until alot later on - hope that makes sense - good luck