to wonder if friend is entitled to Job Seekers Allowance

[Catrinm]

Friend is at the moment a SAHM to 4 kids, all lovely boys.

Her DH is earning a good salary, enough to have a five bedroomed detached house in a nice market town. Kids all do clubs etc and money is not an issue. I also believe they have a fair amount in savings.

So friend is doing a course soon in order to keep her up to date with her profession. he will be in a position to apply for jobs in January. DH has told her to apply for unemployment benefit if she doesn't find a job.

Will she be entitled to benefits if they are already living comfortably? If so do you think they should be allowed?

I've no idea what his income is but it must be considerable given their lovely house, two cars and many clubs for kids.

However, she will be looking for work and has paid national insurance in the past.

Part of me thinks benefits should be for people who really need them but another part says if she's entitled fair enough.
What do you think?

If you've paid sufficient national insurance, you will be eligible for contributions-based JSA.

If they have savings then she almost certainly won't be entitled to JSA.

If he (DH) works over 24 hours a week ( and dependent on income); they have over £16k in savings or a variety of other rules then no she would not be entitled. Without knowing their exact circumstances it would be hard to gauge, however I can see your reservations and understand your annoyance.

Should have pointed out that savings overule both contribution and income based JSA.

if she left her previous job willingly, then no - she's require 2 years prev employment for contrib-based JSA, and she'd need to have almost no income to get income-based

Tell her to check here if you want to help.

If you just want to sound off about people on benefits which they are perfectly entitled to claim, then do carry on, but I shall leave you to it.

Two kinds of JSA, Income based - depends on savings and household income and Contribution Based, depends on national insurance contributions in the tax years 2008/09 and 2007/08. If she has paid enough conts she will get JSA (only for 6 months, though).

If her course is full time I don't think she would be entitled either.

your OP sounds more like hoping she wnt get it than concern that she mightn't

"Will she be entitled to benefits if they are already living comfortably? If so do you think they should be allowed?"

"Part of me thinks benefits should be for people who really need them but another part says if she's entitled fair enough.
What do you think?"

are you a journo or something? will our responses appear in the daily fail in teh morning?