Income support after gap year

planning303

you say extended holiday, but they could have been working while abroad and supporting themselves that way rather than living off savings.

my point is more that it simply annoys me that the OP is already enquiring about their ability to claim benefits for a problem that was:

1, self created (i.e they choose to leave their jobs)

and

2, hasn't actually happened yet (they are still of enjoying themselves whereever they are in the world)

SLW_2

Wow, some people really do love to jump to conclusions!! And the negativity! Sheesh, there was me thinking I would get some helpful hints on where to go for information as the direct.gov website is not so helpful.

To supply you with a little more information, as obviously Liggins requires more, we decided to go travelling for a number of reasons, some of those being: -

1) OH was made redundant and received a fairly decent redundancy package
2) A close friend died at the age of 32 and made us realise that we should live life to the full
3) We have no kids (yet) and so wanted to “see the world” while we had little in the way of a burden
4) We wanted to experience working abroad (Yes amazingly we have been working and not just “enjoying ourselves”)
5) We wanted to experience living abroad

So yes, we lived off the redundancy payout for a while, and we also received some inheritance. But then we have been working in Australia and have saved up enough to continue our travels and return home.

As I said in my original posting, we will be applying for positions before we get back, and this will include signing up to as many agencies as possible. We are not expecting to get back into our original fields, what with my OH being made redundant in a occupation that is suffering in the UK, and me originally working for local government and them too making redundancies left right and centre.

I had suspected that our rental income would be classed as income and so could be an issue when looking to claim any assistance. And in fact the rental income doesn’t actually even cover the mortgage each month, it is actually £20 short each month.

Any form of JSA or Income support would of course be the last resort, but I thought I would query it with some people that might be in the know so that I am forearmed with the knowledge for when we return.

Thank you to those for the helpful responses!!

paddedjohn

Even though you own a property here, do you have to take a residency test when you arrive back in the UK because you have been away for so long?

SLW_2

No, I will only have been away for 18 months, and am a UK citizen so not test required! Phew!

tincat

liggins wrote: »

Tincat, clearly they havent exhausted all their holiday funds else they would be pretty screwed for the next 6 months as they don't intend to return untill next may.

Yes i'm judging them because they have effectively choosen to chuck away their jobs to go on an extended holiday and then expect the tax payer to bankroll them.

I am a tax payer and i can neither afford to go on expensive foriegn holidays nor buy a house! :mad:

Its about helping people get their entitlement! Not about benefits policy!

That's all I'm trying to say. Anyway, I've just looked on direct gov, and you have to be

In UK
looking for work
between 18 and pension age
not working more than 16 hours per week.

So it wouldn't hurt to apply as soon as you arrive back.

claire16c

I went travelling a year ago, but I went for 8 months.

When I got back thi summer, after a couple of weeks I started claiming JSA. However I was able to as I had worked in the previous tax year, so thats the only thing that could stop you doing that I guess as you wont have paid NI that year?

And like others have said because of your house that could stop the income based JSA.

I would just try to leave a bit of savings to help tide you over for when you come back. Although thats easier said that done, we left £3k for when we came back but spent it all! Luckily my DH went back to work the 2nd day we got back though!

I found a job within a week, but it only started this month, so I found a temp job to last up til then within 5 weeks. Id just try applying for a few jobs in the last couple of weeks of your trip.

It will be worth it. Im so glad we did it before having kids etc, we had an amazing time and if we hadnt have gone we would have missed out on so many experiences. When you are away you realise how small the UK is and how much more there is to see. And you are in an even better position in that someone else paying your mortgage for you whilst you are away.

Elle7

As already mentioned, it doesn't matter that it doesn't cover your mortgage, it will count as income.

I'm presuming its more then the JSA amount, so you wouldn't receive any. If it's not, you might get a small amount of top up - you'd need to post how much you get for people to work it out but I don't think you'd be able to rent a property out for less!

If you move back into your house, you might be entitled to JSA (income), providing you don't have any other income (how much was the redundancy? I'm not sure if redundancy money is taken into account under the capital rules, but if it is a lot and you are deemed to have spent it very fast in order to claim benefits they may sanction you) then you'd get the couples rate, and after 13 weeks the interest on your mortgage would be paid for you.

I hope this helps?