Housing Benefit and JSA

qudah

Hi,

I was on JSA for the last 25 weeks.
I started an unpaid job today because I need to do anything in my medical field to keep my c.v. alive. Although the post is unpaid and this is mentioned in the contract, the JSA advisor informed me that they cant pay me any more.

1- will this affect my Housing benefit & council tax benefit?
2- if yes, do I need to contact the council to inform them about circumstances change or the Job Centre will do this automatically?
3- if I borrowed money from a bank or friend or educational organisation abroad, will they consider this as income that will not allow me to have benefit from the council?

TBC

Thanks for helping

qudah

any help so far?

HappyMJ

qudah wrote: »

Hi,

I was on JSA for the last 25 weeks.
I started an unpaid job today because I need to do anything in my medical field to keep my c.v. alive. Although the post is unpaid and this is mentioned in the contract, the JSA advisor informed me that they cant pay me any more.

1- will this affect my Housing benefit & council tax benefit?
2- if yes, do I need to contact the council to inform them about circumstances change or the Job Centre will do this automatically?
3- if I borrowed money from a bank or friend or educational organisation abroad, will they consider this as income that will not allow me to have benefit from the council?

TBC

Thanks for helping

1-You can continue to claim HB and CTB.
2-Yes and then no.
3-Its counted as capital. If you borrow money and then have more than £6,000 in assets including the borrowed money (excluding your home and most contents) then they will count it. If you then deliberately deprive yourself of that capital to continue to get benefit then they will still count as if you had it.

qudah wrote: »

any help so far?

Personally I wouldn't start the job until you have 26 weeks of JSA. Then you will get many more benefits such as automatic HB and CTB run on and back to work payments. Anyway well done for finding some work.

pmlindyloo

How volunteering affects your benefits

Volunteering shouldn’t affect your right to benefits, as long as the only money you receive is to cover your volunteering expenses. For example, expenses to cover travel from home to the volunteering location.
There are no limits on the amount of time you can volunteer for, nor any restrictions on the types of organisation you can volunteer for. The only requirement is that you continue to meet the conditions of the benefit or tax credit you are receiving.
For example, if you receive Jobseekers Allowance, you can volunteer full time as long as you are still actively seeking employment. Also, you must be able to attend job interviews at 48 hours notice and available to take up paid work at one week’s notice.

However, in most cases, if you volunteer full-time and receive an allowance from your volunteering organisation you will not usually be eligible to receive benefits. It is always advisable to discuss your choice of voluntary work with your benefits adviser before you start.
Your benefits adviser will vary depending on the type of benefit you receive. It could be your local council (for benefits such as Council Tax and Housing Benefit), Jobcentre Plus or The Pension Service.

I found the above about volunteering but from your mention of a contract I am presuming that you have accepted a full time job with no pay?

So am I right in thinking that you are not volunteering?

Perhaps you can clarify this?

qudah

HappyMJ wrote: »

1-You can continue to claim HB and CTB.
2-Yes and then no.
3-Its counted as capital. If you borrow money and then have more than £6,000 in assets including the borrowed money (excluding your home and most contents) then they will count it. If you then deliberately deprive yourself of that capital to continue to get benefit then they will still count as if you had it.
Personally I wouldn't start the job until you have 26 weeks of JSA. Then you will get many more benefits such as automatic HB and CTB run on and back to work payments. Anyway well done for finding some work.

I started my JSA in the 22 of April, and i started my contract 20 october, so I signed off from JSa in the 19th of october.

I am renting a flat for 700 monthly, council tax is 1020 annual, and I might be able to borrow 1800- 2000 pounds monthly from abroad, but still this is borrow and i am using it to pay back ppl who I borrowed money from previously.

so I am not paying tax because I dont take money from people am working to here, and I need to pay back about 12500 pounds to people I borrowed from.

any help again?

Thanks

qudah

pmlindyloo wrote: »

How volunteering affects your benefits

Volunteering shouldn’t affect your right to benefits, as long as the only money you receive is to cover your volunteering expenses. For example, expenses to cover travel from home to the volunteering location.
There are no limits on the amount of time you can volunteer for, nor any restrictions on the types of organisation you can volunteer for. The only requirement is that you continue to meet the conditions of the benefit or tax credit you are receiving.
For example, if you receive Jobseekers Allowance, you can volunteer full time as long as you are still actively seeking employment. Also, you must be able to attend job interviews at 48 hours notice and available to take up paid work at one week’s notice.

However, in most cases, if you volunteer full-time and receive an allowance from your volunteering organisation you will not usually be eligible to receive benefits. It is always advisable to discuss your choice of voluntary work with your benefits adviser before you start.
Your benefits adviser will vary depending on the type of benefit you receive. It could be your local council (for benefits such as Council Tax and Housing Benefit), Jobcentre Plus or The Pension Service.

I found the above about volunteering but from your mention of a contract I am presuming that you have accepted a full time job with no pay?

So am I right in thinking that you are not volunteering?

Perhaps you can clarify this?

They didnt consider this as volunteering, they said it is work even if it is unpaid !!!

zzzLazyDaisy

Be careful about borrowing from friends/family by way of regular monthly payments as such payments are generally viewed as income.

Also student loans are generally considered as income, even though they must be repaid.

qudah

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Be careful about borrowing from friends/family by way of regular monthly payments as such payments are generally viewed as income.

Also student loans are generally considered as income, even though they must be repaid.

so if I had 1900 pounds monthly, how this will affect me? will I still be able to claim benefits? Housing or council? or even tax credit either work or child tax credit?

zzzLazyDaisy

qudah wrote: »

so if I had 1900 pounds monthly, how this will affect me? will I still be able to claim benefits? Housing or council? or even tax credit either work or child tax credit?

Regular monthly payments from whatever source are likely to be considered as income.

Whether you would be entitled to any benefits will depend on your circumstances (working wife/partner, how many children, rent payable etc).

If you are in private rented accommodation the first thing to do is to find out the rent allowance for your area - google LHA and the name of your local authority. Check how many bedrooms you are allowed for your size of family/gender and age of children, then check the maximum allowed for your area.

Then if you go to

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/

and input all your details, you will have an idea of what benefits you may be entitled to.

It is always worth phoning the individual departments for clarification, as the rules may vary between departments.

For example, only taxable income affects tax credits, so if the monthly payments are not taxable, then this should not affect working/child tax credits. However if you are on an unpaid contract then you probably won't be classed as 'working' for working tax credits, but if you have a working partner then she may be able to claim working tax credits on her wage.

qudah

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Regular monthly payments from whatever source are likely to be considered as income.

Whether you would be entitled to any benefits will depend on your circumstances (working wife/partner, how many children, rent payable etc).

If you are in private rented accommodation the first thing to do is to find out the rent allowance for your area - google LHA and the name of your local authority. Check how many bedrooms you are allowed for your size of family/gender and age of children, then check the maximum allowed for your area.

and input all your details, you will have an idea of what benefits you may be entitled to.

It is always worth phoning the individual departments for clarification, as the rules may vary between departments.

For example, only taxable income affects tax credits, so if the monthly payments are not taxable, then this should not affect working/child tax credits. However if you are on an unpaid contract then you probably won't be classed as 'working' for working tax credits, but if you have a working partner then she may be able to claim working tax credits on her wage.

This website mentions that if i borrowed 1900 monthly, i wont be able to claim housing or council benefits, but i can claim working & child tax credit.

is there a trusted person or place that i can give my details to to advice me what to do? I need to decide to go on with borrowing application or not.

if anyone here volunteers in helping me i will be very thankful.

HappyMJ

qudah wrote: »

I started my JSA in the 22 of April, and i started my contract 20 october, so I signed off from JSa in the 19th of october.

I am renting a flat for 700 monthly, council tax is 1020 annual, and I might be able to borrow 1800- 2000 pounds monthly from abroad, but still this is borrow and i am using it to pay back ppl who I borrowed money from previously.

so I am not paying tax because I dont take money from people am working to here, and I need to pay back about 12500 pounds to people I borrowed from.

any help again?

Thanks

I don't quite understand why you are trying to pay debts off with borrowed funds it's usually inadvisable. You need to renegotiate the payment terms making token repayments on the debts.

I had an argument with a decision maker once in regards to borrowed money and deprivation of capital. I was into balance transfers a while ago moving money about to keep the interest rate very low or zero. I borrowed about £8,000 on a new capital one card at a fixed low interest rate for life and put the money into my current account via a super balance transfer card and then paid off another credit card bill in full with the money. As the old credit card bill was not due in full they said it was deprivation of capital as I should have only been paying the minimum payments. I'd just avoid doing borrowing any more if I were you.

qudah wrote: »

This website mentions that if i borrowed 1900 monthly, i wont be able to claim housing or council benefits, but i can claim working & child tax credit.

is there a trusted person or place that i can give my details to to advice me what to do? I need to decide to go on with borrowing application or not.

if anyone here volunteers in helping me i will be very thankful.

Which website? What you read on here is all opinion there are no trusted person's or places to go or give your details to. If you put in a claim for housing benefit and council tax benefit and explain all the income that comes into your account they may or may not give you housing benefit. If you have £1900 coming in and you say you are borrowing that to pay the rent then its unlikely you will get more money to pay the same bill but each decision maker is different. You "may" get it. I personally would not borrow more than the personal allowance each week that's £67.50. That will be excluded as you are not getting JSA. It's not against any law to apply and state the facts so don't let people here put you off trying to claim.

I don't think you will get working tax credits as you are not working for remuneration (pay).