JSA denied - not enough contributions (due to maternity)

tastyfish

Hi,
My OH was just (May 2016) made redundant from the recent collapse of a well-known high street chain...

Her claim fro Job Seekers allowance was rejected on the grounds that she had not made enough Class 1 NI contributions in these previous two tax years:
2013-14
2014-15

She was on Maternity Leave from March 2014 to March 2015 (so slightly overlapping those two tax years).

She contacted HMRC who say she HAS paid all the contributions expected. But they don't know what the rules are for claiming JSA (I wouldn't expect them to know).

It seems crazy that they only use two tax years (and not even the last two full ones).

- are they allowed to do this?
- has anyone else experienced this?

She's worked for 22 years and always paid her tax and NI so you can imagine she feels a little aggrieved! She has appealed so I'm putting this up here in case anyone else has experienced the same and so to share experiences.

Many thanks,

tf

Darksparkle

What does the P60 show for both of these tax years?

Has your partner tried looking at their personal tax account to see what it shows there for NI?

pmlindyloo

Does this link help?

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

Brighty

I feel your pain tastyfish, we went through exactly this last year, though it was ESA due to sickness rather than JSA.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5182466
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5190314

As frustrating, annoying and galling as it seems, unfortunately, thems the rules and you just have to suck it up, your wife will not get any JSA or ESA until she returns to work and does 2 full years to get her entitlement back. i couldn't believe it myself at the time, that you can work all your life and end up entitled to nothing, we'd never claimed any kind of benefit before.

I found HMRC NI dept useless too, they know nothing of benefit entitlement and just kept saying to me that she had enough contributions for her state pension

Fortunately for us, we played them at their rules and ended up better off, but that probably won't help you

Good luck

p00hsticks

tastyfish wrote: »

It seems crazy that they only use two tax years (and not even the last two full ones).

- are they allowed to do this?

It can take a while after the end of a tax year for people's NI records to be fully updated (although it's quicker now than it used to be) - the data simply isn't available to enable DWP to start using 2015-16 records yet. DWP advance the tax years at the start of the next calendar year, so will start using 2015-16 records from January 2017.

I agree it's very frustrating, but if you think about it it's only really working in the way that most (all ? ) other types of insurance work. You can be paying car or house contents insurance for decades, but if you then don't renew your policy for whatever reason you won't be covered if you then have an accident/break-in, regardless of how many years previosuly you've had the policy without claiming.

chrisbur

Have you requested NI credits for the period of maternity pay?
If not the address to do so is here....


https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/eligibility

xylophone

See https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/eligibility

re Class 1 Credits for Maternity Pay.

See also https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/what-national-insurance-is-for

The indication above is that Class 1 is what counts for JSA Conts.

Has your wife tried a Benefits Adviser at CAB?

TELLIT01

Entitlement to Contribution based benefits generally requires actually payments of NI to be made during part of the qualifying period, not just credits received from receiving other benefits. The giveaway is in the name 'Contributions based' but I have to admit all that was a mystery to me before I started working at DWP.
Appealing is highly unlikely to be successful as the qualifying years are laid down in legislation, there is no wriggle room for subjective interpretation.
There is a lot of sympathy within DWP staff for the sentiments expressed in the OP regarding many years of contribution, but nothing staff can actually do about it.

xylophone

Entitlement to Contribution based benefits generally requires actually payments of NI to be made during part of the qualifying period, not just credits received from receiving other benefits. The giveaway is in the name 'Contributions based' but I have to admit all that was a mystery to me before I started working at DWP.

I defer to your knowledge and experience.

However, looking at the information in the two links in my previous post,

https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/overview

"Credits can help to fill gaps in your National Insurance record, to make sure you qualify for certain benefits including the State Pension.

You get one of these types of credits if you’re eligible:

Class 1 - these count towards your State Pension, bereavement benefits and some other benefits, eg Jobseeker’s Allowance"

It appears that the OP could qualify for Class 1 Credits for maternity - would this then not count towards JSA?

Or would it only count towards Income Related JSA?

It would seem that the information given on the official web sites could do with some clarification?

Darksparkle

You qualify for contributory JSA if you have made the following level of National Insurance Contributions:

- in one of the last two complete tax years, have paid Class 1 (or special Class 2) contributions to the value of 26 times the lower earnings limit; and
- in both of the last two complete tax years, have paid or been credited with, Class 1 (or special class 2) contributions to the value of 50 times the lower earnings limit.

Brighty

Darksparkle wrote: »

You qualify for contributory JSA if you have made the following level of National Insurance Contributions:

- in one of the last two complete tax years, have paid Class 1 (or special Class 2) contributions to the value of 26 times the lower earnings limit; and
- in both of the last two complete tax years, have paid or been credited with, Class 1 (or special class 2) contributions to the value of 50 times the lower earnings limit.

That's the issue, credits will help you satisfy condition 2 "paid or been credited", but not the first one "paid"

Brighty