JSA & travel for International Bereavement

MrRoots

Hello Everybody,

Was wondering if someone could give me some friendly advice regarding this current scenario. We have just had a bereavement in the family. My mother needs to return home to sort out the funeral etc but can't really go alone because of her age.

The only member of the family that can go to accompany her is my sister. She is currently unemployed and in receipt of Job Seekers. She is very worried that her benefit will be stopped if she goes away and we are unclear what the rules are despite searching this evening.

Does anybody have any advice or information that could help?

kingfisherblue

I'm assuming from the title of the thread that your mum needs to go abroad to arrange the funeral.

My understanding is that if someone is in receipt of JSA, they must inform the Job Centre if they plan to go abroad. Their JSA stops, but on their return they can make a rapid reclaim.

skintandscared_2

As far as I'm aware, if someone on JSA goes abroad then they can't claim during the time they are away as they are unable to "job search" during that time.

If (understandably, if it's her only income) the issue of losing £65-odd a week during that time causes hardship to your sister, perhaps the wage-earning members of the family (who can't therefore accompany your mother and help her) could chip in and cover the amount your sister will be losing? Surely at times like this, family should pull together?

epitome

My understanding is that you can only get JSA whilst you are abroad if you are going for a job interview (abroad) and only then under strict rules which I don''t know about. I will try to find out for you on Monday if there is any other reason (such as bereavement) that you can get JSA abroad but I really, really don't think there is.

There is one other scenario that is "exporting JSA Conts" but that's a different subject all together...and only applies to European Union.