Applying for Job Seekers Allowance or Universal Credit from abroad?

Dynamic_Edge

Hi, my personal circumstances are as follows. I was in full time employment till 31 August on a fixed term contract, and not eligible for any benefits. I've gone abroad a few days ago and will only come back to UK around 25 August. My past employee has just contacted me and offered to extend my contract, and I have agreed a new starting date of 26 August.

For the time 31 Aug - 26 September, would I be eligible to apply for Job Seekers Allowance? Or universal credit? Which would be better in my case? Is it possible to submit a claim now when I am abroad? Or can these claims be submitted once I come back (and start my job) and back dated ?

Thanks in advance.

Dynamic_Edge

P.S. Sorry, I mean "new starting date of 26 September", not 26 August in my initial post!

p00hsticks

I'm not an expert but I donlt see how you'd be considered available for work if you are not in the country

NedS

Simple answer - no.

You must be in the UK to make a claim for benefits, so no you do not qualify.

For JSA you are not eligible to claim if you leave the country / are not in the country.

For UC claims, you can make a claim if you are in the country, and then leave once your claim is up and running for up to 1 month as long as you are still able to meet your commitments - but you would not be meeting your commitments to be available for work as pointed out by @p00hsticks above.

Grumpy_chap

It sounds like you are a contractor and currently on holiday, timed (sensibly) to fall within void periods.  You don't sound like you are available for work.

Voyager2002

Dynamic_Edge said:

Hi, my personal circumstances are as follows. I was in full time employment till 31 August on a fixed term contract, and not eligible for any benefits. I've gone abroad a few days ago and will only come back to UK around 25 August. My past employee has just contacted me and offered to extend my contract, and I have agreed a new starting date of 26 August.

For the time 31 Aug - 26 September, would I be eligible to apply for Job Seekers Allowance? Or universal credit? Which would be better in my case? Is it possible to submit a claim now when I am abroad? Or can these claims be submitted once I come back (and start my job) and back dated ?

Thanks in advance.

You can complete an online application from anywhere in the world, at any time. You would of course declare the date on which your employment finished, which would probably be the starting date of your claim (presuming that you are not eligible for the in-work elements of UC). So your claim would begin once you had returned to the UK.

Claims can never be back-dated.

tifo

Grumpy_chap said:

It sounds like you are a contractor and currently on holiday, timed (sensibly) to fall within void periods.  You don't sound like you are available for work.

Looks like UC is to pay for the holiday ....

Dynamic_Edge

Grumpy_chap said:

It sounds like you are a contractor and currently on holiday, timed (sensibly) to fall within void periods.  You don't sound like you are available for work.

No. I’m not a contractor. In my line of work, many positions are fixed term sadly, and usually without an option to extend. 

I litrally thought I’d be unemployed at the moment, until my employer has contacted me unexpectedly offering a new position. And the fact is that this new position is not able to start before  19 September. I simply postponed till 26 due to personal reasons.

Dynamic_Edge

p00hsticks said:

I'm not an expert but I donlt see how you'd be considered available for work if you are not in the country

I don’t see how my presence abroad affects my availability to work. As I’m sure you know, plenty of people have worked remotely for years now.

And in my line of work a lot of the time I’ve been working remotely anyway. So I can be pretty much anywhere in the world , at least during certain times of the year.

sheramber

Grumpy_chap said:

It sounds like you are a contractor and currently on holiday, timed (sensibly) to fall within void periods.  You don't sound like you are available for work.

The OP has another explaining he was going abroad for his mother's burial.

NedS

Dynamic_Edge said:

p00hsticks said:

I'm not an expert but I donlt see how you'd be considered available for work if you are not in the country

I don’t see how my presence abroad affects my availability to work. As I’m sure you know, plenty of people have worked remotely for years now.

And in my line of work a lot of the time I’ve been working remotely anyway. So I can be pretty much anywhere in the world , at least during certain times of the year.

You must be available to take any work. Are you available for an interview this afternoon to start tomorrow morning in the local Tesco, or McDonald's? You must be willing to end your holiday and return immediately to take up work.