Question re. work and carers

benefitbaby

One other thought... working tax credits?

tomtom256

But if your getting CA then surely your not available for work so not entitled to JSA, or am I missing something?

benefitbaby

tomtom256 wrote: »

But if your getting CA then surely your not available for work so not entitled to JSA, or am I missing something?

You are not missing a thing it has all got a bit confusing. At present the OP is claiming nothing (according to his post #9) however potentially he could claim CA or JSA and as his wife works WTC is a possibility.

JonathanStewart

Thanks everyone

I yesterday phoned DWP who suspended payments for CA to me and told me to send in payslips for the entire period I was employed for (July 9 2012 -September 30 2012), after September 30. They would then decide how to proceed with reclaiming any overpayments etc.

Sorry if things are confusing I will now give you my work history and employment history and see if you can make head or tail of it.

The bottom line is I want to know if I can get money if I claim CA after my job ends on September 30th.

I worked continuously from October 1997- April 2011, full time 35 hours, earning 30k a year before tax from 2008-2011. I was then made redundant in April 2011. In April I claimed JSA (contribution based) as my wife was working full time 35 hours a week for 30k pa before tax. This ran out in October 2011 (6 months worth of contributions I guess?) I then signed off and became a carer for a family member and was claiming CA up until July 9 2012 when I started to work (I forgot to tell DWP at the time but thats being dealt with now as you know). For the period I will have been employed I will earn approximately 5500.

I want to claim CA after signing on for an initial period. The reason for my signing on will not be for the reason of claiming an JSA payment - (but I'd like someone to be able to tell me if I will get any JSA if I did sign on given my wife's working situation - 30k pa 35 hours a week), but because I need to be seen to be signing on initially by my mortgage protection company who need evidennce of this (I was claiming from them since April 2011 after I was made redundant and they put the claim on hold while I entered the temporary contract).

I also need to know with certainty that if I signed off after a month or so, that I would be able to become a carer and claim payment for that - will the fact that I've earned over 5k in the few months I've worked cause difficulties in this regard? Obviously I will pay back the CA that I owe them which will probably be in the region of 300 pounds or so.

Sorry for the detail, but my situation is complicated!

Any help greatly appreciated.

benefitbaby

Carer's Allowance is an unusual benefit in that most benefits take into account your earnings in the week you want to claim benefits e.g. claim JSA for one week and work 4 hours in that week then earnings are deducted from JSA in that week but the earnings do not have any impact in future weeks of JSA.

However CA does not work that way, for example if you were paid monthly and received your earning of £1500 on the 30th of every month then these earnings are treated as lasting for the coming month, e.g. wages of £1500 paid 30 June, a CA claim made on 31 June would not be payable until 31 August.

The above are generalistic examples because how past income is brought forward varies depending on the nature of your pay (weekly, fortnightly, monthly etc).

In relation to JSA this too is a little complicated..
- if you have paid or been credited with sufficient NI contributions then CJSA will be payable for 26 weeks, but
- if you haven't made sufficient NI conts then only IJSA will be considered.

Based on your wife's earnings/hours you will not qualify to be paid any IJSA however you may still be able proceed with a 'credit only JSA claim' this means you will still have to sign-on, you will receive Class 2 NI conts but you will not receive any payment. You may need to check your insurance policy to see if this will suffice.

If you claim JSA first and later claim CA then your previous employed earnings will have no impact to the CA claim.

JonathanStewart

That is extremely helpful thank you.

For further clarity I have been paid weekly and my last pay day will be october 5th - my contract ends on Sept 30th. I have received about 450 per week each week of employment my first pay packet was on 20th July. My last as I say will be on October 5th. My only concern was whether or not there was some kind of yearly earnings cap on CA - i.e. i could only earn up to a certain amount in a full year, and would be eligible for nothing until the following year if I went over that amount. But you seem to have covered that issue in your last paragraph.

My insurance policy confirmed that would be ok to just sign on even if I received no payment as a result of signing on, so no problems there.

Can you be a carer and sign on at the same time? Or do you receive NI contributions anyway when receiving carers?

princessdon

You can't sign on to JSA and be a carer (how can you provide 35 hours a week care and be actively looking for work?)

Re your insurance policy they require JSA (not stamp) - they require you to be looking for work too - so if you are not on JSA you won't get your insurance payout.

How many months are left on your Insurance policy?

JonathanStewart

princessdon wrote: »

You can't sign on to JSA and be a carer (how can you provide 35 hours a week care and be actively looking for work?)

Re your insurance policy they require JSA (not stamp) - they require you to be looking for work too - so if you are not on JSA you won't get your insurance payout.

How many months are left on your Insurance policy?

You seem very sure of your ground - which I can tell you is incorrect anyway.

I signed on as required initially when I received contribution based JSA . When my contribution based payments ran out I signed off - I told the insurance company I signed off because I wasn't getting any payments and they didn't have a problem with that. I sent them evidence of job seeking every month as they required that in lieu.

Your statement re. inability to provide care and be a job seeker is questionable as well - 35 hours a week doesn't mean 9-5 mon-fri - it means 35 hours in a week containing 168 hours.

I spent weekends with the person I care for - so that's Friday night, Saturday and Sunday - then back home on Sunday afternoon for the rest of the week - where I was job hunting.

I have 12 months left on a 2 year policy of insurance - why do you ask?

benefitbaby

JonathanStewart wrote: »

Your statement re. inability to provide care and be a job seeker is questionable as well - 35 hours a week doesn't mean 9-5 mon-fri - it means 35 hours in a week containing 168 hours.

I spent weekends with the person I care for - so that's Friday night, Saturday and Sunday - then back home on Sunday afternoon for the rest of the week - where I was job hunting.

The law does not allow 2 work-replacement benefits to be paid at the same time so you cannot claim CA and JSA together, it is one or the other

JonathanStewart

benefitbaby wrote: »

The law does not allow 2 work-replacement benefits to be paid at the same time so you cannot claim CA and JSA together, it is one or the other

I did not mean that

I meant can I be a registered carer and be a jobseeker at the same time

I'm not talking about payments.

My question is if I signed on, and I was receiving carers but was not eligible for payment for JSA or any other benefit beyond carers allowance, would I still be allowed to sign on?