Claiming JSA retrospectively

Providence100

Hello all,

I am starting a new job in a couple of weeks.

I am signing the contract in the next couple of days.

I have been unemployed for the past 5 weeks.

Over this time I did not sign on for Job Seekers Allowance. I am wondering, can I claim it retrospectively for the 5 weeks I was job seeking?

Thanks.

Savvy_Sue

No. No benefit claim ever starts earlier than the date on which you phone up to start the claim.

t0rt0ise

And then when you first sign up you have to wait 7 days before you get anything.

marlot

I made this mistake when I was made redundant, and missed out on several weeks of JSA.

HappyMJ

Providence100 wrote: »

Hello all,

I am starting a new job in a couple of weeks.

I am signing the contract in the next couple of days.

I have been unemployed for the past 5 weeks.

Over this time I did not sign on for Job Seekers Allowance. I am wondering, can I claim it retrospectively for the 5 weeks I was job seeking?

Thanks.

Ring up today and start your claim. You won't get any cash for 7 days but the 7 days following that you will get a payment and you will get the very important component of JSA...the national insurance credits. You may even have to consider paying voluntary national insurance contributions for the weeks where you were not working and not registered the the DWP as looking for work.

You will not get paid any JSA for any period of time before you register. What you might get is credit for a sanction if you had voluntarily left your last role they could give you a 26 week sanction you've already done 5 weeks so that time comes off the 26 weeks.

Providence100

Thank you for all of your replies. I wish i'd researched this beforehand!!

I was on a temporary contract (interning) during my last period of employment - so I didn't voluntarily leave. Would this make my NI Credit claim obselete?

Cheers.

GothicStirling

If you left your last job because it was the end of a fixed term contract, there shouldn't be a problem with JSA (I've never had a problem any way).

TELLIT01

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

No. No benefit claim ever starts earlier than the date on which you phone up to start the claim.

Possibly true of JSA in all but exceptional circumstances but categorically not true of ESA, IS and possibly other benefits too.

Savvy_Sue

TELLIT01 wrote: »

Possibly true of JSA in all but exceptional circumstances but categorically not true of ESA, IS and possibly other benefits too.

Really? the only one I knew could be updated (but had forgotten about) was child benefit, which can be claimed back to the date of birth AFAIK.

shortcrust

There was a process to apply for backdated JSA back in June 2008. Not much help I know as it was ages ago and my claim was refused anyway. Then they took the date that I wanted the claim to start from as the start of my unemployment for all those things that kick in at various points in a JSA claim.

TELLIT01

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Really? the only one I knew could be updated (but had forgotten about) was child benefit, which can be claimed back to the date of birth AFAIK.

Yes really! ESA can be backdated up to 3 months without difficulty. IS can be backdated under a number of specific criteria e.g. recent separation, wrong information provided by another benefit. There are many other situations where backdating can be considered too.