AIBU to be completely bemused by benefits?

[PurplePidjin]

I was made redundant at the end of Jan, signed on then in March discovered I'm pg - lovely but unexpected! Since then I've been dipping in and out of Contribution based jobseekers, picking up temp work when i can.

I'm in the fortunate position of not being able to afford to work. We can get by on dp's wage (not enormous, but I'm good at budgetting), and my pay as a child care worker wouldn't cover nursery fees - not to mention the irony :o

Anyhow, my jobseekers stops 11 weeks before my due date because I'm not expected to be actively looking. Tax credits etc kick in at birth. Am i entitled to claim anything for those 11 weeks, or do i just suck it up?

Aibu to be completely baffled by the whole thing? And where the fuck is all the info about this? Direct.gov is a headache-inducing maze, the jsa advisor hasn't a clue (they only deal with jsa, not other types of benefit) and all the books/mags/emails i read only deal with Maternity Pay!

PS, yes, i am eternally grateful to live in a society in which i have these luxuries, and have been paying tax for nearly 15 years before the bashers start in on me

You will be entitled to income support depending on your ohs income. I got income support of £112 a week starting from 11 weeks before my due date because I was not entitled to any maternity pay/allowance and my other half didnt earn a huge amount.

I thought there was a 'benefits advisor' at all job centres. And I thought that the job of that person was to advise on all benefits.

That's the case local to me, and local to my mum in a different county.

They went through a range of scenarios with my mum, considering the total income she would recieve from all sources in each one and worked out that her maximal combined income from employment and benefits was to work x hours per week.

Tbh she got a LOT more help than I expected cos I thought that them telling her to work less than x hours a week was a bordering on benefit fraud tbh, but I have since found out that our local jobcentre plus offers the same service.

Maybe that's the difference? Jobcentre v jobcentre plus?

Horrace, it is paid - that's what fucks up my entitlement to anything else! I love it and could develop it in the future as a career, so don't want to quit, but it'd be nice to bridge the gap between jsa and full parental benefits.

I'll try the income support thing, worth a shot at least :)

In an ideal world i could pick up another evening per week of youth work, which would double my income without significant impact on family life...

There are maps on the doors of the loos at my jobcentre showing which area to wipe and which is for bending an arm

Actually, in an ideal world dp and i wouldn't have had 5 redundancies in 8 months plus an agency going bust without paying a month's wages!

Well I am glad i looked at this thread. I always thought I didn't qualify for Maternity Allowance but bit would now appear I might.
Thanks for starting thread OP and for the lovely replies.

Benefits system is a pain. I decided not to return to work after having 1st child. Found out later |I could have claimed Contribution based JSA.

www.citizensadvice.co.uk/

Ok, so i found a phone number for the right department and rang it i hate phoning people

The upshot is that, once my jsa stops, i get nothing until wtc and ctc kick in.

Fuck.

Last months income was under £500.

Fuck.

What would happen if you got a temp job between now and say Oct Nov? Is that an option?

There are none. I tried that, but was only picking up 1 day a week at £50 a day for 10 hours work (minimum wage minus tax and agency fees)

Fingers crossed this is the month dp gets a full month's worth of wages. I can get us back on track then! fucking cunts keep making him redundant and not fucking paying

i dont understand, £100 pw smp is not enough so you wont bother with it, jsa tops up your wages and you wont get ma? did i read that correctly and also you have more than one job?

jsa should only top up your wages if you earn less than a certain ammount cant remember exactly what it is but its about £20 or £25 pw its not a top up its a disregard bonus type thing. smp combines the total of each job you have that ni is relivant and lenght of employment ma is where you havent earnt more than approx £100 pw so dont qualify for smp. but you have earnt more than £30 pw. the others are not contribution based is esa ect so your husbands income would be taken into account.

you dont have to be on any of these for a specifyed time and you dont have to take maternity leave 11 wks before duedate unless you have a pregnancy related condition that prevents you working AND your employer forces you. the law states you HAVE to take 2 weeks from date of delivery no more no less but if you want to you can choose to take a year but after 26 wks the status of your exact employment can be changed (hours/shifts/ect).

£100 a month, Socknickingpixie, from my 3 hour a week evening job. I currently get jsa at a reduced rate to take that into account. It's about £50 pw and means that my stamp gets paid.

Dp works full time, however a string of shitty employers means he's been made redundant 4 times since last December. He also did a months work throufh an agency, they went bust and we received no pay in May. I don't think we've had a whole month's money since January, when i was made redundant.

The extra money is the difference between nice food and scraping by on economy beans. It would mean i could buy cute baby grows instead of hauling round charity shops and sales.

We've worked too bloody hard to be reduced to this

Back in the day, with DS1 you went on Incapacity Benefit.
Not sure pregnancy would entitle you to ESA though.

It really is shit, but it's that bloody Welfare Reform again...

ahhhh i was confused

Hopefully we'll be stable by mid month - please cross your fingers for us - neither of the jobs dp did last month (one that made him redundant, new one that he's still in) have paid yet. Luckily a mate repaid an old loan unexpectedly so the mortgage has been paid. He also starts an evening job on Friday which is weekly pay (temp technical contract, good money but has to be outside working hours)

If you think it's worth asking them, I'll try the cab. They're really busy round here, i don't like to bother them if i can help it and i might cry

Socknicking, £100 a week for youth work would be my ultimate dream job :o