Temporary work and benefits changes

daveandjadea

Currently I'm claiming IB-JSA, housing and tax benefits.
I also pay for my electricity via Fuel Direct.

I had an interview today - IF I get the job it's only a temporary shop assistant role until Christmas Eve, it's only 20 hours per week and minimum pay, but there is a possibility I'd have to work overtime.

If I remember rightly working over 16 hours I'd lose JSA.
What happens to tax and housing benefits in the mean time?
If I still get any benefits, how do I account for possible overtime?

How would I even sort out my benefits?
This job starts on Monday - also due to disability I can't use the telephone so I can't phone to sort out any benefits.

I don't care about not earning much as long as I'm working, hell I'd work for free, but obviously I still need to pay bills, my fuel direct will stop so that's a jump in costs, being winter my gas payments are going to go sky-high, and I'll still need to eat. For this job I'd also have to pay for travel as well as clothing for this new job too - can the job centre provide any help with travel and clothing costs in a new job?

IF I get this job I really want/need to be able to accept it, I don't think I could bring myself to say no to the first job I've been offered in 3 years and 9 months...but the more I think about it the more it seems like IF I get this job it'd be a really bad idea to accept it. It'd be a big benefit in filling some of that gap and helping my confidence, but it means problems with finances, and I've only just gotten my JSA payments sorted out after the job centre messed-up my claim last December. Coming off JSA may also cause problems with my trying to get funding from for my SIA licence (giving me FAR better chance of finding permanent work).

Any advice on how I could do this?

[Deleted User]

not an easy one,is there any chance the job could become more permanent is it definately just till xmas?
if its only temp and only part-time you really need to decide if the financial implications are worth it,but if you are on jsa wont you lose benefits if you turn down the job?

daveandjadea

woodbine wrote: »

not an easy one,is there any chance the job could become more permanent is it definately just till xmas?
if its only temp and only part-time you really need to decide if the financial implications are worth it,but if you are on jsa wont you lose benefits if you turn down the job?

Definitely just till Christmas - they made it clear that if business lags they'd get rid of me earlier too.

I don't know if my benefits would be at risk.
The job centre don't know about this job, also if I can't do this job due to disability (which is a possibility - although the job centre don't fully acknowledge that I'm disabled) and due to it being temporary with not enough hours...I'd hope that this wouldn't cost me my benefits.

Not having been offered a job for so many years I have no idea how any of this works,and wouldn't know where to start to find out.