Housing Benefit. Can they make me claim JSA?

gustav

fluffymovie wrote: »

It's always a long day!!
...

Do you think that HappyMJ's suggestion of declaring £75 pw is a reasonable course? and would avoid the local HB office having to hassle me to sign on?


G

fluffymovie

No I really wouldn't!!! If they can't find where 75 has come from, it'll make it a whole world of pain!!!

It's not unreasonable to claim on the basis of a nil income but it just isn't usually for an indefinite period and can mean you're reviewed more often!

Good luck

real1314

gustav wrote: »

Do you think that HappyMJ's suggestion of declaring £75 pw is a reasonable course? and would avoid the local HB office having to hassle me to sign on?


G

It's an insane suggestion. You might be asked to show records of ebay transactions, or car-boot fee receipts. You may well be asked if you are declaring the income for tax, which if you did get a job at some point could cause further problems.

The truth is usually the best way. :cool:

real1314

gustav wrote: »

Ouch.! Long day at work was it?

So you're saying:
1. i dont want to claim JSA because i have something to hide

I'd think it's that based on historical evidence that this sort of choice is proportionately more likely to indicate a risk. In protecting public funds from abuse, risk based decisions have to be made on where to apply greater degrees of scrutiny.

and

2. i'm being hypocritical by claiming HB and not JSA.

"I'd like to claim the benefit that has lower levels of scrutiny, but not the one with higher levels of scrutiny please" - yeah, sort of. If you can't see the concern it might raise then perhaps you are only thinking of what you might do, not what any person might do. Systems are usually based on what a range of people might do.

?

G.

It won't be an option in a few years, Universal Credit will introduce conditionality for HB/CTB type payments. :cool:

epitome

Of course it's not just £71 per week you are losing out on
It's also £13.25 per week NI contributions

Total £84.25 per week from April 6 2012

How old are you?
And what is your total savings?

All you have to do is write down on a little diary some 3 things you did each week to find work, you can easily make it up using things like yellow pages. And once you get into the habit of doing it you might spot the odd job you are interested in and put in an application (which you can record in your diary), one day you might get that job.

What I would recommend though, is at your Work Focused Interview for a new claim don't agree to phone job seekers direct 3 times a week not even once a week, it's an 0845 number that can cost 15pence per minute, tell them the same jobs are available on the internet and you are not going to waste your time or money phoning a premium rate phone number. If you agree to phone them the jobcentre may well hassle you about why you haven't phoned them for a while.

And the Work Program or whatever it is called "shelf stacking" is not compulsory, and if you do sign up to it you are allowed to withdraw once you start if you want to.

gustav

epitome wrote: »

...
All you have to do is write down on a little diary some 3 things you did each week to find work, you can easily make it up using things like yellow pages. And once you get into the habit of doing it you might spot the odd job you are interested in and put in an application (which you can record in your diary), one day you might get that job.

What I would recommend though, is at your Work Focused Interview for a new claim don't agree to phone job seekers direct 3 times a week not even once a week,...
And the Work Program or whatever it is called "shelf stacking" is not compulsory, and if you do sign up to it you are allowed to withdraw once you start if you want to.

And the very fact that you have to be prepared to play these silly games with the knobs at the Jobcentre just proves that its just such a lot of hassle.
I know, the govt are delighted if i dont claim. Its one less jobless statistic, and all the jobcentre policies are actually designed to make it difficult for you to get any money. It stopped being about helping people to find work many years ago, and is now just about saving money and discouraging people from appearing on the jobless statistics..
Bitter? Moi?

G.

techspec

Pretending to have an income is an insane suggestion. Not only is it fraud - but would have to be declared to the taxman.


I would say fluffymovie is right - if you don't claim at least some income from somewhere - your HB claim would look very suspicious, and would probably be declined or investigated.

HappyMJ

techspec wrote: »

Pretending to have an income is an insane suggestion. Not only is it fraud - but would have to be declared to the taxman.


I would say fluffymovie is right - if you don't claim at least some income from somewhere - your HB claim would look very suspicious, and would probably be declined or investigated.

It's not pretending to have an income. The OP said they would get income from Ebaying and car boots. Accounts need to be kept and declared to the taxman but as the income is so low then no tax is due anyway so no problem.

And you have confirmed that having a nil income causes suspicion so a few hours a week earning an average of £75 ebaying and car booting is reasonable. In the time I have claimed HB I have been asked to show accounts twice...in 18 months. Averaged out my profit is less than £75 a week.

Epitome's suggestion of applying for JSA and making up a jobsearch is even worse than estimating a low income from Ebaying and car boots.