Zero hours contract

joseph9a

A friend of mine has been out of work for a few years now and I'd looking for work. He currently gets benefits which just cover his bills an he has a little left over for food.

He has been trying to get back to work recently but is finding it next to impossible, as it is so tough to find work at the moment and as he has a 2 year gap in his employment this majestic things harder.

He has just been asked to attend an interview for a carers job which is a zero hours contract. He hasn't responded yet but is going to decline as he is worried that if he took it and came off benefits and say one month he only earned £200 he would be kicked out by his landlord.

I said I would come on here and ask advice for him before he responded to the offer.

I know there sievert chance it could be zero hours and he gets 40+ hours each week and is comfortable! but what if there is a period where he only works 10 hours each week? Would he have to goto the local one stop shop and apply for housing benefit and income support and go through the long process of filling out all the forms? And then. If work picked up and he informed them an they stopped the benefits then 2 weeks later he wasn't getting any work would he have to go through the same process again?

I thought there may have been a system where you didn't have the agro of filling out the forms all the time and you just take your payslip at the end of each month and they calculate what your entitled to, wether that be £10 or £100 and give it to you each month. Is there such a system in place that makes life easier for people who want to work but have to take a zero hours contact?

Thanks

Joe

specialboy

If the are periods where his income is low then he can still get help

joseph9a

specialboy wrote: »

If the are periods where his income is low then he can still get help

But would he have to goto the one stop shop and apply for housing benefit, income support etc. from scratch?

He is interested in the job, but the stress it would cause might not be worth it

getmore4less

joseph9a wrote: »

He has just been asked to attend an interview for a carers job which is a zero hours contract.

read up a few threads on the tricks the carer industry uses to pay you as little as possible.

Avoid the employer if they show any signs of using them.

fannyadams

Hi.
from my own personal experience
I had a zero hours contract (with a car parts distributor) about a year ago and I told the job centre and they gave me a form to fill in to record ANY work that I had done for that employer and then sign it off every 2 weeks when I went in to sign on.
If I recall correctly they docked my benefit pro rata i.e. if I worked 2 days in one claim period (2 weeks) they docked me 2 days benefit.
I don't know what happens about the other benefits as I couldn't claim any other than contributions based JSA.

tomtontom

fannyadams wrote: »

Hi.
from my own personal experience
I had a zero hours contract (with a car parts distributor) about a year ago and I told the job centre and they gave me a form to fill in to record ANY work that I had done for that employer and then sign it off every 2 weeks when I went in to sign on.
If I recall correctly they docked my benefit pro rata i.e. if I worked 2 days in one claim period (2 weeks) they docked me 2 days benefit.
I don't know what happens about the other benefits as I couldn't claim any other than contributions based JSA.

Your recollection about deductions is wrong. It is not worked on a pro rata basis, anything earned in a given week is deducted from entitlement (subject to a small disregard).