Holiday on JSA

SuperGirl

Hello everyone. My husband unfortunately lost his job in December. He is getting JSA and we really assumed he'd have a job by now. Whenever he's lost his job in the past, he's gotten a new job much quicker. The reason for this thread is that we have a holiday booked (that can't be cancelled without losing most of the money) in March/April to go visit my family in America for 3 weeks!!! It's a very important trip because I'm American and am away from my whole family and we have 3 small kids. No one visits here so we plan these trips every 2-3 years and this one has been planned for some time, they've not met the youngest yet! Anyway, none of that matters to the thread. Because, if I could cancel for the full amount, I would, despite having looked forward to the trip. But, the amount we'd lose, having booked on a budget site, would be very significant. He obviously had the holiday approved off work for it but... Now... We're only on jsa!

From our understanding, he'll have to sign off and file a new claim when we return as he's not available for work in that time. This isn't good for us, obviously, but we were aware this would be the case. (We haven't spoken to anyone about it, this is just from what we understand looking on the Internet so please correct me if I'm wrong)

BUT, then We realised that if he hasn't gotten a job by 15 March, we'll be eligible for SMI benefit as it will be 13 weeks since he signed on. But, we're away on holiday on 22nd March. So, now I'm upset that he'll be signing off and losing that eligibility and we'll have been living with no real income for that long but not be eligible for the SMI, either.

My question to you all is, is there anyway that we can remain eligible for the SMI. I understand he'll not be paid JSA for the 3 weeks we're away but is it possible to stay signed on, but not paid, so the amount of time claiming benefits still counts? Does anyone have any insight on this at all?

Thank you xx

nannytone_2

im not too clued up on SMI, but couldn't you and the children go on the family visit, whilst your OH stays behind to continue to seek work?

it would also prevent you losing quite so much money on having to cancel for the 5 of you

p00hsticks

SuperGirl wrote: »

BUT, then We realised that if he hasn't gotten a job by 15 March, we'll be eligible for SMI benefit as it will be 13 weeks since he signed on. But, we're away on holiday on 22nd March. So, now I'm upset that he'll be signing off and losing that eligibility and we'll have been living with no real income for that long but not be eligible for the SMI, either.

In case you're not aware in April the waiting period for SMI goes up from 13 weeks to 39 weeks for new claims, so if he has to sign off and sign on as a new claim in April he could be waiting a long time and potentially miss out.

As nannytone suggests, could he remain in the UK while you and the children go ?

Darksparkle

Did he not have any entitlement to contributions based JSA?

red_devil

you sign off then do a rapid reclaim online when you return, you don't have to cancel.

dipsy

do you not have travel insurance and would that not cover you for redundancy - I don't know but maybe worth a look?

SuperGirl

Thanks everyone for the replies.

He actually got a call today that he has been successful with an interview, but the holiday means he'll get a start date after we return. Good for the SMI, obviously, since it won't be necessary. Not great that it's still some time in the future until he's back in work, but it's something!

In response to the questions....

We haven't gotten travel insurance sorted out yet, we usually hold off and do that nearer the time so it wasn't sorted earlier. It's definitely essential because once, when we only had one child and he was quite little, he got sick and we were covered to see a doctor while there. So we never go without it. But, we don't usually have cover for cancelling holidays, going from past experiences.

We had been considering leaving him behind if it was necessary. But, the main point in posting was that that was a very last resort so I was hoping to see it from other angles. See, I don't have a driving licence (I let my American licence expire and never did anything about getting a British one) but my husband does. So, we would be stuck being a massive burden to my family for 3 weeks. An extra adult and 3 car seats is more than most standard cars can handle, and if it's all adults going (both my parents as we're staying with them), then that's 3 adults and 3 car seats. so everytime I needed to go somewhere, we'd need 2 cars or a babysitter and it would be a huge pain. So, him being there means we have a driver �� rental car already paid for before he lost his job (but fully refundable if we had to leave him here)

I'm not sure why he didn't qualify for contribution based. He was straight onto income based. We both found it surprising at the time but who knows.

No I hadn't realised there will be a change from 13 weeks to 39 weeks!! Thanks for letting me know.

HappyMJ

Always get travel insurance as soon as you book.

You never know the day after you've paid your deposit the travel firm might go bankrupt or you yourself could be in an accident, cancel the holiday and need to claim on the insurance.

Most travel insurance claims aren't just the medical costs it's the small things such as cancellation, loss of luggage, delays etc..