Job placement offer and Benefits.

playford

I have been offered a years work placement, Its 3 days per week (21hrs) and £6000 per year (say 500pm). Its not ideal, but then again neither is another year on JSA. The work placement is usually given to a student as a placement year so pay is pretty bad, but better than an internship.

Basically, Its close on what I get at present for JSA+HB at present. I'm just wondering if there is anything I can claim on top of this as its such a low salary.

As far as I can tell, its too much money to get anything on jsa.
Its too many hours to get anything from income support.(over 16)
I'm not sick so no ESA.

So can I get anything in terms of HB

I think I get an extra £100 and 4 weeks HB when I sign off but thats it?

I'm going to try and get a second job, but want to see if theres anything to help out in the meantime as 500 for rent, travel, suits, food, electric and oil wont be fun.

sniggings

you can still claim housing benefit if in a rental property. HB is not reliant on benefits but income, if low enough then you can still claim HB, £6000 sounds like you will be able to get a fair amount of HB.

If you could find another 9 hours from another job, or even self employed, dog walking, cleaning etc you could also claim working tax credits (30 hours of work needed for a single person WTC claim)

The wtc might mean housing benefit then stops or is reduced though.