Help! JSA OR universal credit?

[Suzi7979]

Has anyone applied for jobseekers allowance recently or is it just universal credit at the moment?

Depends on your circumstances as new style jsa replaced jsa conts

Do I need to have paid national insurance every month for the last 2 to 3 years to be eligible?

You will get an enhanced JSA if you worked a certain number of days in previous tax years. If you didn’t you will get the much lower standard rate.

Try entitledto.org.uk calculator to find out if you are eligible for universal credit as well.

You will need to have paid enough Ni contributions during 2019-20 and 2018-19 to qualify for new style JSA which runs for 28 weeks. At the moment due to the covid increase on the standard element of Uc, Uc will pay more than JSA but that may end in April. If you have rent to pay and / or kids then you will need to claim UC unless you are already on tax credits and want to claim New style jsa alongside those.

@KarmaNoMore

You will get an enhanced JSA if you worked a certain number of days in previous tax years. If you didn’t you will get the much lower standard rate.

Try entitledto.org.uk calculator to find out if you are eligible for universal credit as well.

There aren't tow rates of JSA as far as I know ??

There is, the contribution based JSA is just over £70 per week, while the standard one less than £30 per week.

So if I have rent to pay do I need to claim UC? We are already claiming tax credit?

@KarmaNoMore

There is, the contribution based JSA is just over £70 per week, while the standard one less than £30 per week.

It is not possible to apply for anything other than contributions based ( new style ) JSA which is a standard rate of around £75 a week for 6 months.

Your tax credits will stop when you claim UC.

Do a benefits calculator before you make the change as you can never go back.

@Suzi7979

So if I have rent to pay do I need to claim UC? We are already claiming tax credit?

Yes , Universal credit will pay a rent element. It is not possible to make a new claim for housing benefit any more. You could stay on tax credits and claim New style JSA with those but would likely be better off on Uc because of the rent element. Your tax credits would stop immediately if you made a new claim for Universal credit. I would speak to citizens advice help to claim team before making any decision, they can calculate what works best for you.

Thank you all.