Junior doctors and JSA

LillyJ

I wonder if any one can offer advice to a friend of mine.

She has just qualified as a doctor and only has student status until the end of this month.

All jobs for junior doctors start on the first wednesday in August across the country. Therefore she won't get paid until the end of August.

She is REALLY struggling with money, and her last student loan payment (reduced for final year medics) was in January and was for just over £500(!) So obviously, after having paid rent and eaten for the past 6 months she is a bit stuck. Her parents were helping her with a monthly allowance (which was fairly modest) but now she is not a student this has stopped. She has registered with temping agencies with no avail. (try getting a minimum wage job when you are a qualified doctor - not as easy as it may seem!)

There is no bar work around as she lives in the student area and this is dead over the summer. Basically she cannot afford to keep looking for work at the moment and needs some money to pay the rent. She cannot take a loan as she is already over £20,000 in debt from her studies.

Are there any benefits that she qualifies for as she has a job lined up to start in just over a month's time? She also has no money to buy clothes for work or anything, let alone pay her rent. I lent her £35 to pay for her graduation rental outfit! The poor girl is good with money as well.

To top it off the GMC requires her to pay £130 up front before July to become registered with them in order to start work. She has had to go cap in hand to her Dad for this and so can't ask them for anything else.

Any one got any ideas?? (Ideas that involve work in the healthcare field are out of the question - not quick enough as they require ANOTHER CRB and she already babysits but it isn't enough income)

Does she qualify for JSA? She IS seeking work if only temporary.

G-G_4

Take her status as a doctor off her CV and get a job for min wage if that's what she wants.

The problem is that she won't get paid for a few weeks or a month or so?

Titch89

If he's still registered as a student, then she can't get jsa.

Badger_Lady

Only option here - parents.

I'm confused, they've stopped her "allowance" just because she's finished studying? Even though she's got a short gap of no-income?

Definitely can't get JSA if she's:
a) a student
b) got work lined up

LillyJ

Titch89 wrote: »

If he's still registered as a student, then she can't get jsa.

As of 30th of June, she's not still a student.

She doesn't put that she is a doctor on her CV, but people inevitably ask what she has been doing (only part time work on CV for 6 years!) or what she did at uni. She is not one to lie.

The only prob with part time work is the length of time (just over a month), apart from people being funny with her education status.

It is a bit awkward really with her parents, they were topping up her student loan, and it wasn't much to start with but her Dad has been made redundant and although they aren't on really hard times, she can't really ask for more at this point in time.

I feel really sorry for her, I don't know what people are meant to do in such situations. She would have looked earlier but she had her finals so she gave up her job as an auxillary nurse to concentrate on her finals and to register with agencies takes ages (I know I've done it myself!).

It seems a bit unfair in some ways, she is being penalised for having a job lined up with a more distant start date, but friends of ours who graduated with other degrees haven't got jobs and are straight on JSA no questions asked.

She is no longer elegible for student funding as not a student, not earning either, so essentially totally without income. Surely there is some set up for incidences like this?

soolin

There will be a welfare officer at her NHS deanery who may be able to offer some suggestions.

dmg24

She should be able to get agency work as a Nursing Assistant/ Auxililary for July, especially as it is school holidays. I would be amazed if she couldn't.

LillyJ

dmg24 wrote: »

She should be able to get agency work as a Nursing Assistant/ Auxililary for July, especially as it is school holidays. I would be amazed if she couldn't.

Unfortunately it is a 6 week process of getting the CRB check done. I worked as a nursing auxillary as well when i was a student, and she has been to my agency and the nurse bank at the hospital where she is working from August and they said she needs a separate CRB and references etc! They said first shift would be 6 weeks plus! It is silly realy as that was my first suggestion as well.
She was a regular auxillary nurse on a ward in her hospital at weekends until 2 months ago when she gave up for finals.

LillyJ

soolin wrote: »

There will be a welfare officer at her NHS deanery who may be able to offer some suggestions.

Thanks, I will let her know about this.
It just seems such a shame that someone who has studied and got in massive debt for 6 years and is due to start a job serving the community (for less than a Police community support officer earns I might add!) and is left with no funds! I think it may come to a bank loan and the bit she gets from babysitting.

dmg24

LillyJ wrote: »

Unfortunately it is a 6 week process of getting the CRB check done. I worked as a nursing auxillary as well when i was a student, and she has been to my agency and the nurse bank at the hospital where she is working from August and they said she needs a separate CRB and references etc! They said first shift would be 6 weeks plus! It is silly realy as that was my first suggestion as well.
She was a regular auxillary nurse on a ward in her hospital at weekends until 2 months ago when she gave up for finals.

Surely they already have a CRB for working in the NHS?

I have friends that do this every summer whilst studying towards their physio degree, even working in a different Trust to where they do their placements. I would ask the hospital first, check that they would be willing to accept her current CRB, and then go and tell the agency that. At the end of the day all the agency want is their commission, and to make sure that they have covered their own backs.

LillyJ

dmg24 wrote: »

Surely they already have a CRB for working in the NHS?

I have friends that do this every summer whilst studying towards their physio degree, even working in a different Trust to where they do their placements. I would ask the hospital first, check that they would be willing to accept her current CRB, and then go and tell the agency that. At the end of the day all the agency want is their commission, and to make sure that they have covered their own backs.

She has already asked her NHS trust, and they will not accept the CRB she has for starting as a doctor, nor the one they had for her working there part time until 2 months ago! It is ridiculous really as she is cleared to work as a doctor but not as an auxillary.

I did auxillary work for 8 years part time and when I needed to change agencies or whatever it did take a fair bit of time. By then she will have started work! I have a total of 9 CRBs! Also I think your friends must have been working for an agency, rather than the banks in different trusts. I used to do that, so only one required as only one employer (ie agency).

It is a shame as that would be perfect for her as she has experience from before.