how can you claim housing benefit without being a job seeker

Robbie64

Spoonie_Turtle said:

poppy12345 said:

stu12345_2 said:

isn't there a cont JSA that is for folk that don't want UC

Yes but even when working less than 16 hours per week there's only a £5/.week disregard before your JSA reduces £1 for £1.

Huh, for some reason I thought earnings didn't affect it, only pensions.  Maybe I was getting it mixed with ESA.

One wonders what the point is of being able to claim it whilst working low hours then … maybe a small safety net / 'top up' for people with household savings or income too high for UC.

JSA is largely for someone who is unemployed. Although it can be claimed for someone working below 16 hours, with a £5 disregard it's not really possible to work for more than 8 hours at NMW and still be able to actually get it. The old income based JSA may still have been paid, depending on circumstances, for someone working 15 hours. The £5 disregard has remained the same since JSA was introduced in October 1996. With it being set at such a low amount, it's difficult to see what purpose that disregard now fulfiulls.