NI Contributions & Job Seekers Allowance

Muppet81

Hi,
Could anyone possibly explain the system to me?

I have worked without a break in employment for the past 29 years.
Until Nov 2005 I was working full time and earning £28,000 pa.
In Nov 2005 I decided to downsize and found a new job working part time and earning approx £8,000 a year. I had no break in employment.

My P60 for 2005 showed my employer contributions as £2051.36.
My P60 for 2006 showed my employer contributions as £156.42
my P60 for 2007 showed my employer contributions as £385.44

In May this year I had to leave this job for health reason, the work pressure was immense due to a massive change in hours/duties and i started to have panic attacks.
I appreciate I left voluntarily and was not sacked.
I signed on and made a claim for JSA and hoped that they would accept that I had a good enough reason to leave voluntarily.

I have now got a new part time job which i started on 2nd July and notified them that my claim would cease from that date. I was told that if my claim was approved i would receive backdated JSA for the period of unemployment.

They continued to process my claim and I filled in loads of forms and provided all sorts of info to them, as did my previous employer and i know he did not dispute my reasons for leaving as being valid.

I heard nothing further from the JSA and I rang today to see if my claim had been approved and I was entitled to any money for the time i was out of work. A bored sounding gentleman told me my claim had been rejected as I had paid insufficient contributions.

I was stunned. I have worked for all those years and paid a full stamp.
Is my claim dependant of salary earned in the last 2 years. Was the fact i was only earning £8k altering my NI contribution and therefore ruling me out for the JSA claim? How do all the people who earn a low salary make a claim for JSA when they find themselves out of work?

I feel so let down by the system. Could anyone give me any advice please? I would really appreciate this.

Thanks,
Pam

ukdickie31

Hi

For your claim to JSA, NI contributions in the 2005/06 and 2004/05 tax years would have been looked at. The 2006/07 tax year isn't looked at.

You may be able to query the contributions noted on the computer to check thet they relate to the figures on your P60. If they are correct on the computer, then I'm afraid the contributions may not have satisfied the benefit rules.

Whilst it won't help now, the full contributions paid over the years do count towards your pension.

Muppet81

Thanks for the reply. Damned annoying to have paid so much for all those years then find it is not enough.
Good to know that my pension should be OK though.

positivelymummy

exactly the same thing happened to me last year, i only work about 8 months of the year (fishing season etc) everyone else trots off to the job centre, fills in form and gets JSA, i filled in truck loads of forms etc then they leave me, i phone and query they fobbed me off for weeks, eventually after 10 weeks the job centre chased it up for me only to be told i hadn;t enough NI contributions for the previous 2 years! :eek: that was the only 2 years in my life i've never worked full time! (was on maternity etc) and then they still wanted me to 'sign on' every 2 weeks??? which i did, although they made me feel like a total waster, hanging around waiting for them when it was clear they were just sitting at their desks doing nothing and i had 2 young kids to run after! (i was still working with another job for 8 hours a week plus i was about to be re-employed by the same company in about 4 weeks etc) but still they sat me down and went through all the lists of jobs?? what a pathetic system, i prob could claim JSA now, (this year) but i dont think i can be arsed with going through all that hassle again!

Muppet81

I guess it is good to know I am not alone. Sorry to hear about your experiences Positivelymummy. I know what you mean about the nice people at the desks making you feel such a waster ... it was not something I enjoyed at all. All around me I could see people who clearly did not want to work (plus I would add a lot who obviously did) and I too got angry with the system as it is.

I will definitely query thier figures as for a large chunk of one of the years concerned i was paying a lot of NI contribution. How the heck do some people qualify if I don't on what I have paid. Still bemused