HELP regarding JSA - first post

nicholas1975

my wife has just been made redundant after 8 years working all above board on the books, she only worked 16 hours per week therefore earnt less than £5500 per year, the jobcentre have just told her that she isnt eligible for JSA due to class 1 NI contributions. is this right??
please help
thanks a lot in advance

dseventy

If she has not paid enough contributions over the relavant period then yes she won't be eligible for contributions based JSA.


Assuming you work, and over about £100 a week, she won't be eligible for income based JSA either.

D70

amcg100

She may not be eligible for contributions based JSA because this is based on national insurance contributions, but she can claim income based JSA if the household income is low and you have less than £16000 savings.

nicholas1975

well thanks for the replies, even though it all seems very wrong to me, i earn approx £26k so i am assuming that we wont be eligible for anything.
what a great country we live in?
the really annoying thing is that she only did 16 hours so we were eligible for working tax credit, but guess what they took that off us last year as we earnt as a family £32k

Abbafan1972

I got made redundant last year after just over 7 years of working 16 per week and I got £71 per week JSA, hubby works and earns approx £21,000 a year. Have recently found another job though thankfully.

What does "Class 1, NI contributions" mean?

nicholas1975

abbafan, how much were you earning if you dont mind me asking, it all seems a bit screwed up to me

SueC_2

There are two types of JSA:

Contributions Based - you qualify to receive this (for a six month period only) if you have contributed over a certain amount 'into the system' over a previous qualifying period.

Income Based - you qualify to receive this (indefinitely) if your household income is beneath a certain level.

Sorry, off the top of my head I'm not sure what any of the qualifying amounts/periods currently are, but I'm sure Mr Google will be able to help. If your wife doesn't meet the criteria for either or both, then no, she won't be entitled to receive JSA.

I'm not sure if that's 'screwed up' or not, but it's the rules. Sorry!

Abbafan1972

nicholas1975 wrote: »

abbafan, how much were you earning if you dont mind me asking, it all seems a bit screwed up to me

My earnings were approx £5,600 per year.