to think JSA is insultingly low amount

[brt100]

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.

agree ban 0 hr contracts

it's common here to offer 14/15 hrs contracts but no set days or times

so you cant claim wtc as you dont get the 16hrs and you cant look for another pt job as you dont know the days and times of the first job as you have to be flexible,

god help when universal credit comes in and the hrs increase to be able to claim

There re jobs out there though. I know not in every area, but there are plenty of jobs in the south east. I'm have been browsing jobs as the company I work for currently are experiencing cash flow problems and have said if anyone finds a job or wishes to leave they won't make them work notice etc.

I signed on with 3 agencies and have been offered work every day. I have put my search on old to see this through and hopefully the company I work for will make it through, but I'm confident that I can find a job through an agency at short notice, now I am signed on with them.

JSA isn't designed to be liveable in the long term, and whilst I have every sympathy for those genuinely struggling to find work at any level, I do think that JSA should be low to discourage it from being a lifestyle choice. Again I know that benefit lifestyle is not s widespread as the daily mail etc would like us all to believe but its naïve to think that its not done at all.

WhoremoaneeGrainger I think your DH may be eligible for contribution-based JSA, despite what the benefits clerk told him.

He needs to check this out fairly soon, as NI contributions in something like the 2 years before the claim date are what counts, and time is moving on.

Peachy you do know you can claim
Income support as well as carers don't you? They will deduct the carers allowance from your income support but then give you a premium of about £35 so you do get more than jsa. Carers is also only dependant in your income not your partners unlike income based jsa.

I get £56 a week and it is not enough for me to live on. I have to get regular financial help from my parents and thank the lord they are in the position to do so. I dread to think what would happen to me if me and DP didnt have our families support.

Prior to this I was involved in sex work for 3 years because I just couldn't afford to live on the benefits. After standard bills you would be lucky to have any left for food, gas and electric. Thankfully I managed to get out due to the help of my family but many people are not so lucky and their family cannot help them.

Its awfully low and i think unrealistic, i pay more than that out a week just on food how do people manage??

Genuine people only manage if they have savings, someone giving them money or do a bit of cash in hand work.

'There are jobs they are in the south east' - not everyone lives anywhere near the south east or is able to commute or move there, plus many people working there cannot afford any standard of living whatsoever due to the cost of living being so high.

'JSA isn't designed to be liveable in the long term, and whilst I have every sympathy for those genuinely struggling to find work at any level, I do think that JSA should be low to discourage it from being a lifestyle choice. Again I know that benefit lifestyle is not s widespread as the daily mail etc would like us all to believe but its naïve to think that its not done at all.'-

I will likely spend another 3 years on it whilst I am training from no qualifications whatsoever (I have 2 level 1 qualifications in what I'm doing and a Level 2 English, thats it!) until I am qualified in what I want to do. The reason I havnt done this earlier (I am 22) was because my education was interrupted at 12 years old do to bad family circumstances (spent short time in care, severe mental illness) and some boys, one that went to my school raping me then trying to do it again in school. I just could not face going again after that, plus I was being bullied about being raped. I was homeless from being 14 and ended up in prostitution when I was 15. I only managed to get out of it a year ago, due to my family being able to help me. My life story is really complicated but I'm sure some people think I am a benefit dosser. I'm not my life has just been hell for so long with me being incapable of sorting it out until recently, I also had no self esteem and didnt even see I could do a supermarket or mcdonalds job (and infact I've never been able to get an interview with one!). I'd love so much to have had a stable adolescence so I could be where I want to be now. I have to say the jobcentre have been great with me the past year though (they were utterly useless before this government came in, I will give them that) and helped me go to college to get the qualifications I need to progress onto a higher level course. I was never able to get on this particular course when I was 16/17 as I had no GCSES, and tbh I probably wouldn't have succeeded as my life was so chaotic and I had these men exploiting and bullying me.

The vast majority of people do not want to make a 'lifestyle choice' out of benefits, they are so low and it is really boring and soul destroying for most people to sit in everyday doing sod all. Many people like me do want a job more than anything but for many many reasons it just isn't happening.

When I worked in brothels there was loads of single mums on JSA who did it because they couldn't afford to live or provide for their kids, they could not get a job anywhere and many were not as lacking in qualifications as me! You actually think they should be so low that people who simply cannot find a job in this climate have to sell their bodies to live? I also know people who have been forced to get involved in illegal activity like selling cannabis in order to live. Its so much harder than most snooty middle class people think it is!

Very well put honey and glad to hear your story is ever improving.

The middle classes that demonize JSA are disgusting. The vast majority on JSA really need it at an acceptable level to exist and to enable them to get out and about for interviews / training.

Yes, you can not afford to travel anywhere at all on what JSA pays. A one day bus ticket costs £5! I was lucky to get my travel money to college off the jobcentre but still had to get money off my parents to buy clothes to wear to suit the course. I honestly couldn't live without my parents or going back to the sex work (which I really don't want to/couldn't do, it got to the point I couldnt block it out anymore!). I feel really sorry for people in this situation that don't have any other support.

Thanks for the update re council tax on JSA, it wasn't the case when I was on it. Honestly I find that shocking, I as a student don't pay council tax but my grant/loan is about the same as what JSA pays in a year. Surely that's not fair?

Also do people on Income Support have to pay council tax?

Just my council tax is 7 a week with single person discount and council tax support, also my water is 6 a week. My gas and leckie is double your quotes too.

What size property are you living in ?

Are you getting the full 75% discount and single person discount ?

Stop using so much gas/elec ?

Being on jsa is shit, I can't imagine anyone choosing to do it rather than work. When dh was on it he had to apply for 13 jobs a week which was ridiculous as there weren't 13 jobs to apply for. We used up all our savings and ended up with £3k on our credit card because we didn't have enough to live on.

The relief of him being back in work is immense, never again do we want to go back to that.

I live in a detached bungalow band d. Pretty small and it takes a lot to heat it even just to 18.

Yes I'm claiming everything, your figures are not realistic.

You can apply for CO relief a fix but it's operated by individual councils and the degree of relief varies. I think you'll always have to pay something. Our CT would be £5 a week with a 75% discount.

I pay £7 a week council tax, leaving me with £49 for water, tv and internet and a phone (you would go insane sat in with no money to go anywhere AND no tv, i need phone and internet to do a jobsearch, something I have to do for 7 hours a day, or I would lose all my benefits) licence, food, gas and electric. It is not enough so I have to source things elsewhere. It really irritates me when people bang on about benefits being a lifestyle choice, there is no quality of life whatsoever on such a low income!

sorry should have said tv licence*

'What size property are you living in ?

Are you getting the full 75% discount and single person discount ?

Stop using so much gas/elec '

Why do people always come out with claptrap like this? The fact is you do not get enough to live even the most basic life on benefits, I'm sick of people (who are usually privileged) trying to insidiously blame the claimant and suggest they are living above their means rather than just admitting the obvious that benefits pay sod all and most people cant afford to eat properly, pay their bills or keep their house warm without having something on the side to top it up.

'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...'

Wheres your evidence 'far too many people dont want to work'? How on earth do you personally know this? Why should someone be forced to work such a distressing morally questionable job if it will negatively effect them? I would refuse to work in an abattoir myself, it would scar me for life, I am very very sensitive to animal issues and would cry. What use would I be in such a job? What good would it do to for example force an already mentally fragile person to work in such a place? Do you think they'd be able to stick with the job for long?

I'd rather lose my benefits and go back to sex work than that.

Turns out not even the person in the abbatoir example didn't want to work, 22honey. But apparently the thread (by her friend) "gave off an air".

All the evidence one needs, eh?

22Honey - I feel for you and your previous situation, and can appreciate you working hard to gather some skills and improve your situation, I hope that things work out for you.

I stick by my earlier points though - there ARE too many people who choose not to work, the abattoir situation I mentioned seemed to have changed in the context of this post...... originally it was office work, then it changed to floor work, then back to office work.

I can understand "some" issues with morals / beliefs etc impacting on peoples working choices, however if people are "actually" desperately seeking employment, the job centre won't just send them off to any job that comes up.....

As I mentioned earlier, I know someone who works in a relatively local job centre, and she has admitted "off the record/a bit tipsily" that anyone that is known to be simply taking the piss will be sent off to anything that they see fit...... not great I admit, but the people who work in the job centres know and can spot genuine people from those that are "going through the motions" to get their allowances.

Without trawling back through all the posts, I wanted to respond to some pedantic buffoon earlier when I'd stated that "I could get a job quickly" - I understand that people have different skills etc - and was met with comments regarding "such and such I know has a degree in something or other and got turned down from such and such a job for being over-qualified" - people in the real world don't actually get turned down for stuff like that..... it's an age old excuse when the person just doesn't "fit" the role.

Using personal experience, my previous role was gained despite being far too qualified (on paper) for the role, it was essentially a step backwards in terms of the seniority of the role, but I needed experience to progress my career overall. For my current role, I was nowhere near qualified enough, (degree level education specified in an Engineering field), but I got it anyway.

I don't really put much faith in the opinions of the job centre staff. Dh has a chronic, life limiting condition.

He was off work briefly whilst his treatment was sorted and his condition stabilised with medication.

When he started looking for work he had a great advisor but then she left and the new one was dreadful, treated him like crap. She belittled him and made him feel worthless. My dh had worked 60 hour weeks for 20 years before he was out of work for 18 months. There was no evidence to support him being a shirker but she treated him like one just the same.

Whoremoan ctc isn't dependant on working any hours so you will get that. Also have you thought about applying for pip?

Bubblebutt, you still havn't explained how you know for sure there are lots of people who just don't want to work. There are plenty of people who just wouldn't get a look in for a job a monkey could do, because they have 0 qualifications or experience. Its very ignorant to automatically assume this is because the person is lazy and work shy, they may very well have a background like mine and I'd dare anyone to try and tell me to my face that was all of my own doing.

Every job seekers advisor seems to work differently and have different levels of empathy and compassion I have found, its the luck of the draw who you get landed with. Luckily for me and DP this time we have a really nice down to earth one who does what she can to help you and isnt a judgemental out of touch tosspot.