Would i have to be actively seeking work?

Cashtyke

Im just trying to wiegh up my options and wondered if anyone had been in a similar situation or knows more than i do.

My partner works just over 16 hours per week
I am unemployed due to redundancy
My 15 year old child is to be home schooled by myself
We privately rent our flat

After using the entitled calculator it says roughly per week:
£92 partners wage
£110 tax credit
£10 council tax benefit
£44 housing benefit
£11 income support/JSA
£18 child benefit

My questions:

Would it be me or my partner that would make the claim for income support/jsa?
Would i have to be eligible for work due to claiming this top up benefit?

Due to recent circumstances i have decided to home school for one year. It is a temporary measure but the best we can come up with. As much as i want to get back to work my child is more important than earning a few extra quid. With the amount of work im going to have to do at home i dont want to have pressure to sign on and look for work at least not for the time being. i may look for part time as time goes on but for the moment my child needs full attention.
Any help much appreciated

Oldernotwiser

Without meaning to be rude, how can you possibly be able to prepare your 15 year old to take all of her GCSE's?

Financially, wouldn't it be simpler for your partner to work full time?

daff_duck

I have the same problem. When I put our income in the calculater it always says we would get £37.00 Assumes IS/JSA/IB, yet I have phoned all the agencies, CAB, BEL and CLS and all of them say we would not get this as we get WTC, so I just disregard it as a mistake. No-one on here could explain it either.

mum2one

Cashtyke wrote: »

Im just trying to wiegh up my options and wondered if anyone had been in a similar situation or knows more than i do.

My partner works just over 16 hours per week
I am unemployed due to redundancy
My 15 year old child is to be home schooled by myself
We privately rent our flat

After using the entitled calculator it says roughly per week:
£92 partners wage
£110 tax credit
£10 council tax benefit
£44 housing benefit
£11 income support/JSA
£18 child benefit

My questions:

Would it be me or my partner that would make the claim for income support/jsa?
Would i have to be eligible for work due to claiming this top up benefit?

Due to recent circumstances i have decided to home school for one year. It is a temporary measure but the best we can come up with. As much as i want to get back to work my child is more important than earning a few extra quid. With the amount of work im going to have to do at home i dont want to have pressure to sign on and look for work at least not for the time being. i may look for part time as time goes on but for the moment my child needs full attention.
Any help much appreciated

Hi.
I may be wrong, but the general impression of Income Support is if your child is under 16 then you do not have to actively look, for work, but must attend a back to work interview at your job centre every 6 months, for JSA I think the rules change slightly as you have 2 weekly interviews and must be actively looking for work.
With I.S. they may take your partners earnings into account,would be worth having a word with the CAB.
Good luck with the home schooling.
x

Cashtyke

sitting GCSE's next year. Due to various problems she is a long way behind. After discussions with the school it seems in the short term the answer is to home school. Hopefully a year of one on one attention will be the answer. Then the intention is to send her to the local college where she will study for a year and hopefully sit the exams albeit a year late. I also do have experience as a teaching assistant. Its not ideal but who says schools are the best place to teach kids? It should be based on the individual.

As for my partner working full time this may not be possible as work is scarce as it is in the area.

kelloggs36

Could you not find a part-time job in the evenings or something? This would free you up for schooling and your partner's work, and then you could swap roles in the evenings?

Cashtyke

So is there actually a cut off point (ie a poverty line) where a certain amount of income should be considered enough to live on?
Exactly how much is a family of three supposed to live on a week?

Cashtyke

We did consider this but unfortunately my partner cares formy mother in law 2-3 days a week and lives 2 hours away. Due to recent circumstances i cant leave my daughter alone in the evenings. There may be a way round it but trying to find the job to fit into our lives at this moment in time is not easy.
I may be able to do something for several hours a week, and i was also considering doing a course at college part time but again it all comes down to fitting it in.

ukdickie31

I think you will find that JSA is the benefit that there could be an entitlement to. I thought Income Support had a 16 hour cut-off point for work (I stand to be corrected on this).

JSA has a 24 hour rule for the partner of a person claiming. The person claiming has the 16 hour rule for work (ie the person who is signing on)

JSA would expect whoever is signing on the be willing to work, actively seeking work and be able to work. Amongst other things, that's what the declaration is stating when the person signs on.

kelloggs36

There will be deductions depending on the income of the partner though. It used to be that a couple could earn something like a tenner per week without it affecting benefits, but this may have increased recently.

azjh77

A couple 'only needs £90 a week to live on' according to the letter I got telling me I earned too much to get income support. (£93 a week at the time!)

If I earned less than this they would have topped me up. The money for your daughter comes from child benefit/child tax credit. You should also get Working Tax Credit.

Job seekers allowance is just that...it assumes you are looking for a job. Have you thought about moving to an area with better job prospects for your husband?

I only work 16 hours, while my husband is at home and we are constantly asked by others 'why my husband isn't working' (because looking after 4 kids isn't working apparently!) We can't claim income support, and as he isn't looking for a job, he wouldn't be entitled to JSA. But at least we do not have the hassle of being constantly badgered by the DWP, like some of my single-mum friends who have to go back to college or lose their benefit.

As for home schooling, I intend doing this for all 4 of my children, (personally I don't think GCSE's are worth the paper they are written on) I think your daughter with thrive in such a specialised environment....There are plenty of websites with details, so have a good look.