JSA Conts based qualification.

TELLIT01

My niece has just been turned down for Conts based JSA and I can't work out why. She is 30, worked full time for the past several years, certainly the past 5 years, earning National Minimum Wage. She only stopped working a couple of months ago because they moved from the area.
Apparently the letter claims that she doesn't have enough NI contributions, but from my rough calculations she would have been paying NI on that level of income.
She doesn't live near me any more so I can't immediately check things like her P60's.
Any thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.
She knows she doesn't have an entitlement to Income Related benefits because her husband works full time.

TELLIT01

Thanks. I'll pass the link on to her.

p00hsticks

TELLIT01 wrote: »

My niece has just been turned down for Conts based JSA and I can't work out why. She is 30, worked full time for the past several years, certainly the past 5 years, earning National Minimum Wage.

Was this in a single job ? There are people currently falling through a gap where they are working in a number of part time jobs concurrently, but not reaching the NI LEL in any of them .....

The two years currently being looked at to determine if she qualifies for contribution based benefits will be 2013-14 and 2014-15

TELLIT01

p00hsticks wrote: »

Was this in a single job ?

Yes it was a single job. Something just doesn't seem right on the NI side to me.

Alice_Holt

Did she receive payslips showing deductions for NI and Tax.
Has she her P60 / P45?

Do you think there is any chance that her employers have not been paying these onto HMG

TELLIT01

Alice_Holt wrote: »

Did she receive payslips showing deductions for NI and Tax.
Has she her P60 / P45?

Do you think there is any chance that her employers have not been paying these onto HMG

Those are questions I'll have to ask her. Her former employer is quite a large company so hopefully have been paying the NI & tax.
She now lives about 40 miles away so it's not easy to look over whatever paperwork she does have. She's only recently moved house and has no way to scan anything to me to check.

xylophone

http://www.rightstobenefits.com/unemployed/jobseekers_allowance_jsa.html

"You will get contribution-based JSA only if you’ve paid enough Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) in the 2 tax years before the benefit year you’re claiming in. For this calculation, a 'benefit year' runs from the first Sunday in January to the Saturday before the first Sunday in January of the next year.

So you will have to have worked for 26 weeks in one of these years and earned at least the lower earnings limit for that particular tax year. AND >>>>
You will have paid Class 1 contributions OR received National Insurance credits in both of those tax years that amount to 50 times the lower earnings limit. See below for how much you will have needed to earn....

The Lower Earning rate for 2012-2013 - £107.00 - so (£5,350.00)
For the year 2013 - 2014 £109.00 - so (£5,450.00)
For the Year 2014 - 2015 £111.00 - so (£5,550.00)
For the Year 2015 - 2016 £112.00 - so (£5,600.00)"

p00hsticks

TELLIT01 wrote: »

Those are questions I'll have to ask her. Her former employer is quite a large company so hopefully have been paying the NI & tax.

Also get her to check that the NI number on her payslips/P60 is correct and matches what she's told DWP when claiming.

Brighty

Celifein wrote: »

She can request a copy of her NI record online:

https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/shortforms/form/NIStatement

or phone:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/national-insurance-enquiries-for-employees-and-individuals

Don't bother with that form, all you'll receive is a statement telling you how many years qualify towards state pension, you won't get any info about contributions needed for benefits

This thread may help
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/67873498#Comment_67873498
or https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5182466

Brighty

Spendless

I was once told the same by the JC. At the time I had been working full-time without a gap for the past 13 years! And earning enough to be paying NI (before min wage came in). I took all my P60s in and then they told me I was eligible to receive!

I have read on here that there can be an (admin??) problem that means people are told they're not eligible but they can take proof in and it can be overridden. Sorry this info is vague, I can't remember exactly what it said, but I do remember reading it at that time and thinking 'oh, that's what must have happened to me'

I think if your Niece provides proof of earnings over last few years, they will say she's eligible to receive CB JSA.