am i entitle to Contribution-based Jobseeker's Allowance

davidm1

how can i check if i am entitle to Contribution-based Jobseeker's Allowance?

my contract is finishing at end of Jan 2012

ps@ thought i should add, i dont plan to claim from Feb, but in Apr, due to going on well needed holiday

for the this FY, i believe i should pay £738.33 (on £15k PA for 43 weeks NIC), last FY, i have paid £225.33 NIC (21 weeks) and being on the dole.

based on these figure, am i entitle to Contribution-based Jobseeker's Allowance?

Many Thanks

HappyMJ

Probably not as JSA credited NI contributions don't count towards contributions based JSA. You need to earn over the lower earning limit as an employee every week for the entire tax year. However, you may earn much more in fewer weeks to have a full year of contribtuions credited. You may or may not qualify. It's quite a complex calculation.

I'll see if I can figure it out....

Right the last 2 years are 09-10 and 10-11 the LEL's were £95 and £97 a week. The UAP is £770 which you never exceeded. You worked 21 weeks last tax year 10-11 paying £225.33. Which meant you paid about £10.73 per week. Which meant you earnt about £207.50 per week for those weeks. In total that's only £4,357.50 for the whole tax year. That won't be enough to be credited for the whole year. Any tax that you have paid you can reclaim from the HMRC and you can claim Income based JSA if eligible.

davidm1

so the 'last 2 years' will not be 10-11 and 11-12, would it be different if im claiming from the new FY?

ALIBOBSY

They look at the claim year (think it runs from second week in jan to week 52 at end of dec) so in your case anytime in mid 2012 will mean the 2 tax years used will be the 2 prior to that ie as other poster said 10/11 and 09/10. To take into account the tax year 11/12 the claim would need to be jan 2013 or later.

other poster is wrong in that credited ni does count towards jsa. There are 2 conditions for entitlement one of which only includes paid conts the second of which includes credits.

The first states you must have paid an amount equal or higher than 25 times the lower earnings limit in one of the 2 years.
The second states you must have paid and/or been credited with conts equal to or higher than 50 times the lower earnings limit in BOTH years.

So the whole thing is more complicated than you might think and can't be worked out from the info you have given.

Ali x