Contribution based JSA when does the clock re set on the 6 month entitlement?

an9i77

I've been claiming contribution based JSA for four months following redundancy and managed to get a four month fixed term contract so have now signed off. If I can't find work at the end of the four months, I will want to go back on JSA but I am only entitled to the contribution based part due to husband's income. My question is, as I am entitled to 6 months if I have already had four months this year will I only be entitled to 2 months or does the clock re set after a period of employment and I'd get the full 6 months entitlement again? How does it work in terms of how they calculate your entitlement if you've been in and out of work?

calcotti

Given that your claim just ending was made in 2021, I think that if you claim again during 2021 as it will be assessed on the same two years of NI contributions (2018-19 and 2019-20) you will only be entitled to the remaining two months. If you next claim in 2022 then they will be looking at your NI contributions in 2019-20 and 2020-21 and if you meet the NI conditions would be entitled to six months again.

an9i77

Ah so the clock re sets each tax year as in I would need to wait until April 2022 to get the full six months again and only would have the remaining two months until then?
That makes sense just hope I can get something lined up for end of this contract and/or they extend it. 

calcotti

an9i77 said:

Ah so the clock re sets each tax year as in I would need to wait until April 2022 to get the full six months again and only would have the remaining two months until then?
That makes sense just hope I can get something lined up for end of this contract and/or they extend it. 

There is a difference between benefit years and tax years. Tax years run April to April, benefit years run from the first Sunday of January. The tax years looked at are the two complete tax years prior to the start of the current benefit year.

So any claim made after 2nd January 2022 will look at tax years 2019-20 and 2020-21.

an9i77

Thats good to know as the contract is due to end Mid Nov and then  the 2 months would tide me over to 2022 when the clock would start again... hopefully I won't be out of work as long this time but do you know if they would reassess the claim mid way through ie if I ran out of entitlement mid Jan they'd reassess on 2019/20  and 2020/21 and 'reset the clock' or would I need to end a claim and reclaim afresh in 2022?

calcotti

It gets more complicated than that. If you claimed again in November and received two months ending in early January 2022 you would not be able to claim again straightaway. A fresh claim would need to be for a different period of unemployment which means that you need to leave 13 weeks before the end of one claim and making a new one - anything shorter and the periods of claim are linked. So if a claim ends in January you would need to wait until April/May before claiming again.