New job - period of not working

[EatYourFive]

Hello

My husband has taken time to look after the kids this year in between jobs. He has now been offered a new job but they want evidence of his economic activities this year ie. JSA or similar. The issue is that he didn't sign up for anything as my income has been enough for us and he wouldn't have qualified for any benefits anyway.
Should he have signed up anyway and what can we do now to provide this evidence?

He didn't have any economic activity so he can't provide it. He needs to inform them that he was not working but was taking some time out to look after small children and due to the overall family situation, he did not seek or apply for any benefits.

Can he not tell them that he took a career break to look after his children and was not entitled to benefits

He had explained this to them and sent the kids birth certificates as evidence. The problem is that it's a large organisation (NHS) and he has to deal with someone new each time and start explaining the situation all over. It' incredibly frustrating and it never occurred to us that he should have signed up somewhere when we made the decision for him to take time off work.

It might have been worth transferring child benefits into his name to protect his NI contributions (although I realise that can be a nuisance if you're over the threshold) but retrospectively there's nothing you can do about that.

Just confirm he was an active SAHP for those durations and lived on the family income. No point in trying to make it sound any different to what he did.

I sympathise with your frustration if this is being asked repeatedly and you've explained each time. But I don't really understand WHY it keeps getting asked.

When he explains, why isn't it just updated on the system as being n/a and then the onboarding process continues?

I mean, this cannot be the first time this has happened. Is it because he's a man?Because there must be 100s or 1000s of women who work for the NHS who have this exact situation - higher earning partners and they return to work for the NHS with no claims to JSA or UC or whatever? I would start asking this question if he keeps getting asked, "do you insist that women who have been SAHPs and not claiming any benefits have to prove economic activity"?

Sorry, cross post - but the child benefit comment still stands. But again, you can't retrospectively change that.

Might be worth confirming this with HR and asking them to provide a cover letter/email to confirm this has been squared away rather than have to re-hash every time his role changes a fraction.

I don't see what he should have to keep explaining. They sound ridiculous.

Though I have to say I don't bother putting a six month role on my CV now it's a good few years ago and changed the dates around the other jobs. Perhaps DH could do this when the break was not quite so recent, to stop all the questions.

Thanks everyone.
@MsMarch that's what I was thinking, there must be so many women who have taken time off work, sometimes years, to look after family without claiming any benefits.

This whole process is just ridiculous, he was offered the job two months ago and still has not start date. No wonder NHS is struggling with staffing issues if something like this can hold them back!

Contact HMRC, I had this issue and they were able to send my tax history for last few years to prove I hadn't been in employment during period I said I wasn't.

Employer was happy with this

The NHS are a nightmare for this. Takes 4-6 months to get into a job.

Hi, if it's NHS referencing it's probably not so much a financial issue as a safeguarding/compliance one, i.e. they want evidence you were doing what you say you were doing rather than in prison or similar. It can be difficult for people that have been SAHP or carers (but also travelling, in ill health or similar) as opposed to those who were volunteering or studying or whatever and can provide a reference to show what they were doing. DBS do require this so it's not just nonsense made up by the individual trust. However NHS Employers are very clear they can accept a personal statement of what the person was doing in this time, confirmed by a 'personal'/character reference by a person of standing in the community (same sorts of people as can countersign a passport) in lieu of an employment or education reference.

www.nhsemployers.org/publications/employment-history-and-reference-checks

Do you have a neighbour or family friend or similar who'd provide this for you? Teacher at DC's school maybe?

Thanks @maxelly that's helpful. Wish they would make it clear what exactly they're are after when they call... If it's a character reference they need then they should say that and not just go on about JSA and whatever. His DBS was done weeks ago and was fine. There have been just endless issues ever since and every single time it's a different person asking the same stuff. 🙄