Jobseeker's and pay in arrears

superwizon

sulkisu wrote: »

It doesn't really matter what a load of stranger on a forum think, so I'm not sure in what way you would like people to 'back you up'. As far as I know, none of us have the authority to overturn the decision.

Speaking for myself, I understand the way that it works (I suspect that many do), and accept it. If money is tight, you would be better off asking for advice on how to make it stretch than asking us to tell you that we agree with you, which is pointless and serves no real purpose.

well i wasn't sure if it was just the morons at my local jobcentre or if this is actually the rules, that people that work have to go a week/month without any money when they lose their job.

and it is impossible to make £134 stretch 2 weeks, i am really good with money and budgeting but it's not going to cover 2 weeks rent, electric, food etc.

RAS

superwizon wrote: »

but that covers the previous week. like i said, jobseeker's is paid in arrears but they dont make you go two weeks without any money because you've just received a two week payment!
there's no way i can make £134 cover two weeks rent and bills, it's only just enought to pay one week's!

Have you applied for HB/LHA yet? That is paid from the Monday after claim and so you need to do it pronto.

Also CTB?

Poppie68

superwizon wrote: »

well i wasn't sure if it was just the morons at my local jobcentre or if this is actually the rules, that people that work have to go a week/month without any money when they lose their job.

and it is impossible to make £134 stretch 2 weeks, i am really good with money and budgeting but it's not going to cover 2 weeks rent, electric, food etc.

Jobseekers is not going to stretch far either for rent etc..have you applied for housing benefit.
Also to be fair the 'morons' are only doing their job and have advised you correctly so why call them names?...they don't make the rules!

Edit: Beaten to it by RAS.

superwizon

RAS wrote: »

Have you applied for HB/LHA yet? That is paid from the Monday after claim and so you need to do it pronto.

Also CTB?

yeah i did that but if i'm not entitled to jobseekers i wont be entitled to HB will I?

superwizon

Poppie68 wrote: »

Jobseekers is not going to stretch far either for rent etc..have you applied for housing benefit.
Also to be fair the 'morons' are only doing their job and have advised you correctly so why call them names?...they don't make the rules!

Edit: Beaten to it by RAS.

no but my wage covers everything, even if i get HB that will only pay my rent, i wont be able to eat/ pay my bills

Poppie68

superwizon wrote: »

no but my wage covers everything, even if i get HB that will only pay my rent, i wont be able to eat/ pay my bills

While i agree living on JSA is only an existance and not a life plenty of people do manage to eat and pay bills on it. I can feed a family of 5 on £50 a week and regulary do, hopefully the job search will pay off for you and you won't have to manage on the JSA for too long.

superwizon

Poppie68 wrote: »

While i agree living on JSA is only an existance and not a life plenty of people do manage to eat and pay bills on it. I can feed a family of 5 on £50 a week and regulary do, hopefully the job search will pay off for you and you won't have to manage on the JSA for too long.

yeah i'm not disputing i can't live on JSA, but they won't pay it for my first week of unemployment, so i have no income at all :-(

my income prior to losing my job wasn't much more than i will get on JSA/HB and CTB , but without Jobseeker's for the first week i'm gonna get behind on everything.

RAS

superwizon wrote: »

yeah i did that but if i'm not entitled to jobseekers i wont be entitled to HB will I?

You do NOT need JSA to claim LHA and CTB. These are based on your income and you really must apply for them tomorrow becasue you will lose a whole week's money if you wait until Monday.

How much is the LHA rate for your area? are you single and under 35 years old as the rate is for a shared house regardless of your actual situation.

Most Councils allow you to do this on-line although you need to take your rental agreement and old pay slips in. Do you have a P45? Take that with you.

Given how tight things sound, check out if there is a local food bank; at least you can get a few days food form them.

I appreciate this is very hard but we cant change the rules that have been set.

Morlock

superwizon wrote: »

I have complained to the Jobcentre and written to the Prime Minister's office...

Good luck with that. It is Cameron's government that recently increased the period of no benefit entitlement from three to seven days.

You won't get a bean for a week, this will apparently 'motivate' you to get another job.

missapril75

superwizon wrote: »

Like I said, if I was paid monthly, they would make me go one month without any money, then start my jobseeker's entitlement from a month after my job finished. How does that even work???

Not like that.
Your last wage is actually irrelevant. If you were monthly paid you would still get paid JSA from the same date, meaning you would get it before the next monthly salary.

I suspect that when you raised the issue at the job centre, the member of staff may have suggested that your last wage might still mean you have money. After all, wages are usually a higher rate than JSA.

This would be why so many people here have suggested the same thing.