To ask why JSA is virtually half State Pension per week

[Oilnwater]

I'm probably clueless and totally missing something which is why I'm on here asking for help in understanding ......
Currently a single person aged over 25 would get £73.10 per week JSA. A single person basic pension is £129.20.
Why the huge disparity? Who comes up
With the figures? Is there a formula?
It just strikes me as odd that both single people would in theory be facing the same housing / petrol / fuel (the winter fuel allowance isn't much) food, normal everyday costs. Why the huge difference?

I doubt many pensioners will have voted Tory especially the waspi women.

What annoys me even more than this is why carers allowance is less than JSA

Carers should be more than the basic pension imo.
Underpaid, very little respite, and even if the person who is too ill to work can afford it from their benefits waiting lists for respite can be very long for a couple of hours. The carer is unable to help with a top-up. Yet regular access would help them both so much long and short-term.

When I was working in sn, a lot of parents since becoming full-time carers also ended up with depression etc as a result. How is that good for either of them or any other siblings?

The forgotten ones.

@ProfessionalBoss I think in the case of people selling their homes and using their savings to pay for care its understandable though. Yes, it's great if someone can leave assets to family, but there's not a limitless pot of cash to provide care. So if A got to keep a 500k property to bequeath to their kids. Whilst person B with no property/savings gets provided 'free care'. It's still not 'free' because the money has to be generated from somewhere.

@Dogno1 I absolutely agree! However a lot of people don't realise that... Nor do they realise that should they, or their spouse require to be admitted to a care home, despite being "working age" then the same applies. So the savings and house equity would still need to be used to finance their care...

Personally I think another big issue today surrounds funeral costs. My mum has made her own provisions to provide. Whilst my dad (they're divorced) definately doesn't have a funeral plan in place. As I work full time and am lucky enough to be (just) above the threshold to claim benefit top ups. I'm well aware his funeral costs will no doubt fall to me to take out a loan to cover, as he does live off the basic state pension. But what can you do? 😕

If you claim JSA the basic amount is £73.10, if you are claiming under the old rules you can claim housing benefit, If you are on ESA & claim PIP, you get extra premiums for severe disability, if you live alone you also qualify for a premium that is equivalent to carers allowance if nobody claims carers for looking after you. Anyone who qualifies for severe disability premium will not have moved over to universal credit yet as these people will be the last ones to move over.

Isn’t no one having to sell them home for care one of the tories pledges?

@Pixxie7 Aye probably 😂 No doubt those who need to hand on a legacy of title and ownership of a castle/stately home can't let it slip through their fingers. However I'm sure those of us who own property in the lower bracket will still all be selling and stumping up for our own care costs.

And on universal credit, it makes no difference how much NI you might have paid previously in years at work. They don't take it into account at all.
JSA soon won't exist as they roll out UC everywhere anyway.
I rather think that the current £70 odd a week will seem like a luxury to single (esi young) people forced over onto UC...

Plus I think they scrapped the old run on overlap time from moving from benefits to employment? So effectively someone's housing/benefit payment is stopped from the day they start employment, but they can no longer access a 'hardship loan' to cover bills/bus fare until they receive their first wage? In which case where is the incentive? You're already in debt before you even start.

Being on JSA when you have a mortgage is very scary and when you are travelling all over Cornwall for job interviews you can easily spend £35/40 a week just in fuel. I understand it's not meant to be enough to live on but both times I was out of work it still took two months to find a job even with applying for dozens of jobs everyday and tailoring my CV to each one, then you have to wait another month to get paid. I think it should be raised by £20 a week as it hasn't increased in years.

The distance you are expected to travel to look for work whilst claiming £70 odd a week is amazing. When my husband lost his job with 1 hour’s notice when the company he worked for went bust, obviously we saw JSA as a stopgap not a lifestyle 🙄. We live in the arse end of nowhere and as PP said, how is being expected to spend over half your week’s money on fuel (or you get sanctioned) feasible?

@FruitcakeOfHate I absolutely agree; my daughter works for a national high street store and “experience” just doesn’t come into it in a minimum wage job. She fulfils the exact same role as her 5 years older colleagues, yet on a full time week earns £88.00 less.

@ProfessionalBoss you’ve reminded me of the time, about 25+ years ago when I was not long married and between jobs and went to sign on (as you did then) and the man in the job centre said “your husband should be supporting you”. I nearly fell off the chair. I said “are you seriously telling me I can’t claim dole in my own name?” I’d honestly thought that shit had died out with my mother’s generation when women started paying their own NICs.

@Dogno1, bloody men, honestly. Grrr. Insure the feckless dad, it won't cost much monthly, will give you a lump sum to cover costs and may as well pay it now rather than at interest on a future loan. Get advice, don't buy a specific funeral plan.

"JSA soon won't exist as they roll out UC everywhere anyway."

Wrong. Contributory JSA still exists, it's just called new-style JSA now. Income-based JSA has been replaced by Universal Credit.

This is the source of much confusion to many people (including many of the advisers I worked with as they got to grips with the new UC system).

I understand it's not meant to be enough to live on but both times I was out of work it still took two months to find a job even with applying for dozens of jobs everyday and tailoring my CV to each one, then you have to wait another month to get paid
This is why we hear all the time that we should all have the equivalent of 3 months savings for this case scenario.

Also, a large proportion of people losing their job will be entitled to some redundancy money.

"a large proportion of people losing their job will be entitled to some redundancy money."

Seriously?!
People only get redundancy money if they've been in the job for 2 years or more, and it's only 1 week's pay for every year in employment.
Plenty of people get made redundant before 2 years of service (I was).

But it’s a lie that pensioners have worked hard all their lives! Some of them surely are these workshy who claimed the dole and have big tellies? I never understood the argument from those who think the current situation is right.

Pensioners get pension credit so that even if they haven’t paid the necessary contributions for a state pension they still get that amount if they don’t have anything else to live on. Also the contributions paid via NI are nowhere near enough to pay for a state pension for most.

I doubt many pensioners will have voted Tory especially the waspi women

Really ?

@Dontdisturbmenow being entitled and actually getting it are two different things though. My husband had 17 years service with a company that collapsed. No money to pay redundancy. I had10 years service with a business that went bust. No money to pay redundancy. The real world isn’t always like you want it to be.

As for three month’s savings, it’s a good and sensible idea but when you only earn minimum wage and you’re paying your mortgage or rent, bills, food, travel costs etc out of a take home pay of £1300 a month, it’s not that easy to save £4000.

Pensioners are more likely to vote Tory than not. They also vote much more than any other group. That’s why they are pandered to in this way.

Pensioners are more likely to vote Tory than not.They also vote much more than any other group.That’s why they are pandered to in this way

So maybe everyone should bother to vote ?