JSA when you've been self employed

badgerwarriors

I'm after a bit of advice really. My boyfriend was self employed as a taxi driver from Jan 2009 until Jan 2011. Prior to this he has always been employed (from approx 1995 onwards) on PAYE. (apart from brief periods following redundancy on 2 seperate occasions)

When he stopped being self employed last year, he tried claiming contribution based JSA. He was advised that as he had been self employed, he wasn't eligible as the type of national insurance payments you make don't count as contributions.

We managed on my income and he found employment in July 2011 and was working as an employee again until last week, when his company let him go due to lack of work within the business. They've let lots of people go across the country.

We applied online to see if he would be entitled to contribution based JSA and he received a text message to advise he was and he had an appointmnet with the job centre today.

He went along, and was advised that because he had been self employed within the last two years, he was entitled to have his national insurance contributions paid but nothing else. He was also told it wasn't worth bothering with this.

If he's not entitled to JSA, we'll manage, but I just wanted to see if we have been given the right information?

I know that he is not entitled to income related JSA as we have savings and I earn just over £18k p.a.

It's very frustrating when you spend the majority of your working life paying your taxes and national insurance, to be told that because you were self employed for 2 years, you aren't entitled to any help.

Can anyone confirm if we have been given the right information? I've tried searching on the internet and just can't seem to verify what we've been told?

epitome

AFAIK (as far as i know) He has been given the right advice insofar as he will not get any JSA conts. However if the jobcentre told him it's not worth claiming his NI credits that could be correct or could be incorrect. Thge process below will take a few weeks, while he is waiting to find out he should remain on JSA and continue to sign on until he knows exactly what position he is in.

Go here http://pensions-service.direct.gov.uk/en/state-pension-age-calculator/home.asp
and see how many required years NI credits he needs to have paid in order to get a full pension.

Then ask for a pension forecast on 0845 3000168 this can take about 3 to 4 weeks.

This will tell you how many complete years he has to date, compare that with his required number of years.

If he already has more than he needs he need not stay on JSA NI credits only
If he has less than the required amount he may consider whether he wants to continue to sign on to get his NI credits paid. NI credits are worth approx £13 per week to him. If he is short on his years and he does not continue to sign on he can top up his years in four ways

• he can pay them voluntarily at £13 per week
• He can hope to get an employed or self employed job in the future to cover his remaining years
• He can sign on on to JSA in the future for complete years
• He can ask for a detailed statement of his NI record going back till he was 16 years old which may flag up some previous years which are only short by a small amount, which he can then choose to top up voluntarily.

Charityworker

He can sign on to get his NI credits but he will also be signing up to all the stupid schemes the job centre like to put you on. That's probably what the advisor meant.

Horace

When you have been self employed you cannot claim contributions based JSA but you can claim income-based JSA. I know this because I was self employed and am currently claiming JSA whilst I look for paid employment.

Notmyrealname

As above. Class 1 NIC counts for Contributions Based JSA. Self employed pay Class 2 NIC which doesn't count for Cont JSA but does count for contributions based ESA.

Caz3121

Horace wrote: »

When you have been self employed you cannot claim contributions based JSA but you can claim income-based JSA. I know this because I was self employed and am currently claiming JSA whilst I look for paid employment.

but you would not receive payment for this if you had a partner that works.

Horace

Caz3121 wrote: »

but you would not receive payment for this if you had a partner that works.

I didnt know that - thankfully I don't have a partner. Thanks for letting me know though as I have now learnt something.

badgerwarriors

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for their responses. It looks like he isn't entitled to JSA then

I'm aware that he needs to make a certain number of years contributions of N.I, but at 35 I think he's still got a few more years to make those payments up!

I wanted to double check the information he was given as the lady in the job centre was far from professional. She was seen to "punch the air" when she thought my boyfriend hadn't turned up for his interview, and at one point actually used the phrase "the computer says no". The combination of this and the fact that he had received a text message to indicate he was entitled left us to doubt the information he was given.

Thanks again everyone for your help.

badgerwarriors

Charityworker wrote: »

He can sign on to get his NI credits but he will also be signing up to all the stupid schemes the job centre like to put you on. That's probably what the advisor meant.

I believe she was referring to his pension as apparently she made a comment along the lines of "you'll have to wait until your 700 to claim it anyway". Very professional!