to think JSA is insultingly low amount

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I mean 72 pounds a week is a joke, and you will loose 20% of that if you had an average paying job for half of the tax year.

Around here the daily rate wouldn't even cover the daily bus ticket to get to interviews.

Its low because wages are so low and benefits cant be more appealing than working.

Yes, it is a low amount and it's practically impossible to live on it in the medium-to-long-term if you have no savings. As I discovered not that long ago once my own savings ran out. If it hadn't been for the kindness and generosity of friends and family I'd have been bloody scuppered. My greatest fear was the bank calling up my overdraft if I sank into one, which gave me sleepless night, I can tell you.

It might be possible to live the life of Riley on benefits but certainly not if you're single, that's for sure.

Silly I understand that, but if you've worked hard bought a house and don't have children its impossible to live on. The same amount is given for contributions based whether you were on 100k or 10k - that's what I find insulting.

Should of just blown all my money on holidays and cars rather than a house to better myself as I would get my rent paid.

Nope, you'd be unlikely to get all your rent paid - and then you'd be paying the excess out of the JSA as well.

Rules for rent are very tight indeed - so many rooms shared between so many people, in the bottom 3rd of the market.

Have you looked into the mortgage support benefit (can't remember the name): IIRC it pays interest-only on your mortgage for a certain amount of time - and unlike housing benefit isn't restricted to a number of rooms.

Doesn't mortgage interest relief (or whatever it's called) kick in after x number of weeks on JSA?

I know it's not easy for a lot of people, and impossible for some, but having savings set aside is absolutely necessary whether you have a mortgaged home or a rented one. The accepted wisdom is the equivalent of three month's-worth of basic outgoings as a minimum.

That's the point.

In addition to the basic allowance, there should be an element that is related to past tax/NI contributions, as there are in other countries (eg. Spain).

If you have worked for X years earning Yk per year, you should be entitled to at least half that amount for a period of between, say six months and two years.

The real losers in the current system are people who have mortgages and have worked in high paying jobs, because the amount they are entitled to will mean that they will really struggle or could even lose their home, unless they have a working partner who earns enough to cover the bills on their own.

I think JSA amounts did use to relate to NI contributions - but under the general cuts to benefits have been cut back.

The length of time for which one gets contribution-based JSA is also under pressure, and recently Gideon clipped the start of JSA too - you now can't claim for the first 10 (?) days of unemployment.

It's to motivate you to do what it says on the tin - get a job...

i honestly don't know how people live for years.... months on.benefits... my hubby was made redundant without a package as he hadn't worked for them long enough. so had to go on jsa and ouch it was "bloody hell get a job and job and quickly!!" as he is a highly skilled scientist regular factory jobs won't take him as he's over qualified and scientific jobs are few 2 months on benefits and its completely crippled us (i can't work as im on sick with pregnancy related illness). he's at an interview today so fingers crossed. jsa for live?? there is no life on benefits its complete survival and scavenging

I can only.talk.from my.experience,

Single mum with.2 children Iv signed.of now having.finally got a given a job (very hard.to find in my situation)

But it was fine and.doable for me,

How ever if those home owners I can see it being quite bad, but what can they do.. They can't pay your mortgage because you will get people who just won't bother getting a job..(I'm not benifit.bashing...I am.aware that far more on benifits want offbthem but there is.a small percentage.who take the pics)

It's an awkward one, this one.

It's meant to help the people who are out of work but actively seeking employment, but far too many abuse the system or have no intention of working - I remember reading a thread on here a week or two back where someone's friend had been put forward for an interview at an abbortoir (office job), but was going to flunk the interview because she was a vegan.....

I do understand that people who lose their jobs through no real fault of their own need assistance, but there are more than enough jobs out there for people who want to work, to find work - along with the abuse of the system, there is a generation of people who think that certain jobs are "beneath them".

It's livable.

And yes, like the NHS, it's the same for everyone.

Bubble I remember that thread but the job was actually on the line, not an office job.

I agree with you op, but it is very hard to find the balance. Pay too much and people won't want to work. Too little and they starve!!

single just on JSA impossible

single mum 3kids on jsa,tax credits,CB managable

Bubble, your post is exactly the sort of crap that screws up comprehension of welfare.

The vegan friend on that thread was desperate for a job - she just couldn't bring herself to work in the killing part of an abbatoir.

As it happened, the abbatoir also had a vacancy in an unrelated PA job which perfectly matched the friend's skills, and she jumped at it.

What's more, if the highly experienced PA had taken a manual job for which she had no experienced, there would be a company out there bemoaning how hard it was to get a suitable PA...

But you go ahead and describe that as "having no intention of working".

Yay keyboard warriors!

Nope, the thread started out with the role initially being completely away from any of the "nitty gritty" - it was an office role, but she didn't want to go for the job because of her vegan stance. I must admit, I didn't read the whole thread, as the responses were infuriating (to me, I understand people having differing opinions!).

Yeah - I did generalise a bit - if a role is wildly outside of a persons skill sets it's understandable to say no to a role, however that thread in particular gave off the air of someone who didn't want to work.

If you are being sent for a role through the job centre (knowing someone who works in one), they will "pair" you with suitable jobs, they will very rarely send anyone off on a wild goose chase to something that is not suited to the person.

JSA is quite low, but it's not unmanageable on. If people are actively seeking a role but are out of work, you can claim allowances for travel expenses. People need to pull in the spending if they are out of work - cut back on expenses (obviously).

I was suggesting though that people who want to work can easily (relatively) find work - there are plenty of jobs out there for people to do.

isn't it being low the point?
It would hardly benefit society as a whole if jsa allowed a lovely life to be led on it!, find a job if you want more money.

IME the worst thing about JSA is the way they speak to you when you try and claim it. So bad, I didn't claim leaving me with CB as my sole income for 7 months, I lost everything including my health. It's a long slippery slope back up when you find a job again, I'm still not where I was pre redundancy, sure I ever will be.

YANBU

I'm sure it's fine if you have kids but I have a single friend who was on JSA for two years and owned a house so didn't get HB.

Her life was total hell. She couldn't afford to go anywhere or do anything. If it hadn't been for her parents giving her generous amount of Christmas and Birthday money etc she couldn't have coped.

After 23 months without a job she was suicidal. Luckily she got a job after 25 months.

Not a living situation anyone should have to live with.

It is pitiful yes OP. I had to live on Carers Allowance for a while and it was very, very hard.

Have the people on this thread who say it's easy to find work tried to do so recently? I work with graduates and I can't believe how competitive it is for them to find any kind of work after graduation (here in south west always been a problem in some sectors admittedly).

Why would you lose 20% of JSA though? If you are on PAYE tax, the tax free allowance is split into a weekly or monthly amount. Isn't it around 10k a year now? So you can earn about £192 a week tax free and the £72 JSA would be untouched. And if you were employed for part of the year, in April you can apply for a tax rebate, as you've not used £120 a week of your allowance while on JSA (meaning you will have paid too much tax while you were working, as your total years income will be less than was expected).

It is quite low, that's why the JSA bill is relative peanuts, because the amount is shit.

More money is spent on Council Tax Benefit than JSA. Housing Benefit six times more. Tax credits ten times as much.

JSA is very unappealing, which is why there is so much concern about people abusing disability benefits, tax credits and so on, because you can live on those.

itsnothingoriginal - Graduates are notoriously hard to place, as their "skills" are much more specialist, and they seem to expect far more money than they should be aiming for as a starting salary.

My wife has a role in which she employs a certain amount of graduates in a specific field, and the money they expect as a starting salary is obscene compared to people who will be actually teaching them the role.

Answering another point. I have been out of work for 6 months at one point in my life, and unfortunately within the first week of being unemployed I sustained a knee injury playing football that incapacitated me - I was single and living with parents after splitting up with a girlfriend - however I had a job within 4 weeks of starting looking properly. I have subsequently moved jobs 3 times, each into completely different roles/industries (and each with no experience of the industry I was heading into). Without wanting to appear big headed, I could get another job, should I start looking, within 2 months I reckon.

There is plenty of stuff to do - look on any job related website - there are too many people who won't do certain jobs.