is there any point in registering unemployed when no benefit is payable?

poggs

My wife took 5 years out to care for our children.

She then did 2 years full time education graduating in the summer as a fully qualified early years education practitioner (new name for nursery nurse) Unfortunately despite 10 interviews she is still unemployed as all jobs have been filled by others with "experience".

Our youngest is 7 so she gets her NI stamp paid by child benefit

As I earn 30k I dont think she will get any other benefit.

Accordingly, Is there any reason to sign on?

Sncjw

Get your ni stamp paid. It’s going to be useful when it comes to claiming pension as you need so many years paid

andygb

I know exactly where the OP is coming from, becase we have been in that situation, where one of us was working on decent pay but the other wasn't so we would get absolutely no benefits (apart from the NI stamp) if the non worker signed on.
The other problem is the nasty attitude of the DWP - particularly towards intelligent, qualified people IMHO. They will look at your CV and try to humiliate you, asking why you cannot find work. Then they will say things such as "I cannot understand what your previous work involved", and then "Have you ever worked in retail?".
Then they will most probably send you on a "skills course", "Conditionality course", where you will be further humiliated, by being forced to take very basic English and Maths tests, which is not very pleasant if you are educated to Masters degree standards.
This is precisely why I believe that the unemployment figures are not a true reflection of what is happening. There are probably millions of people who are looking for work but do not want the stress and negative vibes which comes with signing on.

poggs

Sncjw wrote: »

Get your ni stamp paid. It’s going to be useful when it comes to claiming pension as you need so many years paid

The NI stamp already gets paid for the next 5 years (until youngest is 12) as a result of claiming child benefit.

harz99

poggs wrote: »

The NI stamp already gets paid for the next 5 years (until youngest is 12) as a result of claiming child benefit.

In that case I see little point in signing on unless your wife really wishes for some reason, to be counted in the unemployment figures. If she does wish that, she needs to be prepared for the rubbish she will get as outlined by Andy GB.

Silvertabby

The only reason for signing on would be to get NI credits - but as they are already covered, then don't bother.

When Mr S and I retired from the RAF we still needed 44 years (him) and 39 years (me) of NI contributions in order to qualify for the full basic State pension. The financial advisor we saw (as part of our retirement package) strongly recommended that we 'sign on' if we didn't get new jobs straight away. Not for benefits - we were both in receipt of our Armed Forces pensions - but to ensure that we didn't lose a full year of NI credits.

I really wish we hadn't bothered. There's no application form for just NI, so we had to apply for JSA, even though we knew we wouldn't get it. One of the questions was: 'How much do you have in savings - note if you have more than £XK then you may not be entitled to JSA'. We both put 'over £XK', only to have the forms shoved back to us with a demand for the correct sums 'for our records'. We refused, which confused them - but as their empy threats not to pay us any JSA just went over our heads, they finally accepted our original answers.

We finally got letters saying 'your application for JSA (what application - what JSA?!) has been carefully considered but has been refused, as according to (Labour) government guidelines, you have too much money to live on. !

We did get our NI, though, but we were both glad to 'sign off' a couple of months later.

trailingspouse

Many years ago I was in a similar position. I suspected that I wouldn't be entitled to anything, but discovered that you can't just go and ask them if you might be - you have to actually apply. And then get turned down along with the clear implication that you were trying it on!!!

maninthestreet

andygb wrote: »

I know exactly where the OP is coming from, becase we have been in that situation, where one of us was working on decent pay but the other wasn't so we would get absolutely no benefits (apart from the NI stamp) if the non worker signed on.
The other problem is the nasty attitude of the DWP - particularly towards intelligent, qualified people IMHO. They will look at your CV and try to humiliate you, asking why you cannot find work. Then they will say things such as "I cannot understand what your previous work involved", and then "Have you ever worked in retail?".
Then they will most probably send you on a "skills course", "Conditionality course", where you will be further humiliated, by being forced to take very basic English and Maths tests, which is not very pleasant if you are educated to Masters degree standards.
This is precisely why I believe that the unemployment figures are not a true reflection of what is happening. There are probably millions of people who are looking for work but do not want the stress and negative vibes which comes with signing on.

That's not my experience from 6 months unemployment last year.