Confused

ClareyFairy

I worked full time for 2 years from sept 2009 - sept 2011, at which point my contract ended, I was earning £23000 per year.

Since then I have been living off my savings whilst searching for a new job...but the savings are now low so I want to claim benefits but I'm not sure what I will be entitled too because my partner (who I live with) is a full time student.

So he receives £2969 bursary from hmrc and £900 bursary from university. I cannot find it anywhere whether these will be counted as income and if so whether the money gets divided by the number of weeks in a term or in an entire year.

We rent a private flat at £600 per month and receive a council tax bill of £680 a year (total after 25% reduction for full time student)

So I guess what Im wondering is what I'm entitled too and how they treat the student bursaries. (My partners course in architecture means he actually has to purchase quite a lot of materials to make models, and all projects have to be handed in on A1 sheets which cost £5 each to print, so unlike a course assessed through essays he has considerable course overheads.

Sorry for such a long post but wanted to give as much info as possible

Anubis_2

I think your partner's may be classed as income unless you have paid enough NI for the qualifying period. You may have been better claiming as soon as you finished work.

See an advisor at the JC or go to your local CAB. You should be able to recieve contribution based JSA for 6 months before household income is taken into account, but better to speak with CAB.