JSA after leaving university.

looby1975

My daughter graduated from uni last Wednesday, after finishing her exams on the 8th June. She has been living on the last of her student loans (which are less in the final year)

She has been applying for everything and anything work wise for a couple of months now, both in her chosen field and everything else (bar work, retail, shift work, you name it.) but as yet she's not had so much as an interview.

As much as she doesn't want to it looks like she is going to have to apply for JSA as her student loan has all but gone and while I can feed her and put a roof over her head I can't help her financially.

The only problem is she keeps getting conflicting advice as to whether or not she will be eligible for JSA, some people say she will still be considered to be a student until September and will be expected to live on her loans, even though they were less than the first 2 years.

Does anyone know if this is the case? Or will she be able to apply for income based JSA now? Hopefully she will get a job soon or funding for her masters/phd as she has applied for quite a few graduate schemes as well so fingers crossed it would only be for a short period of time.

cte1111

According to the government's website:

Full-time students can’t usually get JSA until their course has officially finished - check the date with your college or university.

This seems to imply that once the course has officially finished, your daughter would be able to claim IB JSA. I would say it's certainly worth a try, there's nothing to be lost by your daughter starting a claim.
https://www.dwpe-services.direct.gov.uk/portal/page/portal/jsaol/lp

Robbie64

She will be able to claim JSA after her course of study has ended - basically the end of the last term at her university.

The following is advice from the Student Welfare Service at Leeds University

http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ssds/welfare/finance/leaving-university

Your daughter may need to contact her university to find out the exact end date of her course.

looby1975

Thanks thats really helpful, her course has officially finished now.

Fingers crossed something comes up before she has to apply, the job centre sucks the will to live out of you

fluffymovie

Just putting it out there but depending on what area you live in, she may need to claim Universal Credit not JSA

looby1975

We are still in a JSA area, afaik there is no date yet for us to go over to UC.

paragon909

What is the point in going to uni and doing all that work just to do retail or bar work lol and get into huge debt.

looby1975

paragon909 wrote: »

What is the point in going to uni and doing all that work just to do retail or bar work lol and get into huge debt.

she is applying for jobs in the field she graduated in, but as I'm sure most people realise the days of walking out of uni with a degree and into a good job are long gone.

My daughter is willing to do ANY job just to earn enough to live on while she also volunteers/shadows to get extra experience to give her a better chance of ending up in a position for which she got her degree for.

She's also planning on working towards doing her masters/phd and needs some money behind her before she can afford to do that too.

Mersey_2

Yes, I've known recent graduates claim JSA (including a neighbour's daughter, last Sep).


Proof of graduation should be sufficient. I think the reason some JCPs are reluctant to give a definitive answer re July/Aug/Sep, is that many students only receive their results in late June and have re-sits in August. Some courses are also 4 years+, so merely proof of being an undergrad for 3 years (student acc bank statement) is not sufficient.

Mersey_2

www.savethegraduate.org is quite a useful site for your daughter.

looby1975

Thanks Mersey, I've passed the link on to her.