to think my brothers abusing the system

[bhgnrpusbpilates]

or is he entitled to do this.

I will cut a long story short my brother late 30s, volunteered redundancy end of last year ( completely voluntary, so chose to be unemployed) and went travelling for a bit, he came back recently and i overheard him telling someone now its the new tax year he is going to claim new JSA as he can for 6 months as its not means tested (ie redundancy payment wont be taken into account), and probably just go off travelling again.

We have always been raised in a household where you work end of , and my mum is first to call anyone else for abusing the system ( my brother is the favourite so perhaps i'm being a bit bitter)

but i don't agree with this at all, I wasn't massively happy with him for making himself redundant from a decent job just because he felt like it ( i too have a decent job but the R word terrifies me ) I think decent jobs are hard to come by these days , and its not like hes in his 50s, he graduated during the credit crunch so took him a while to get such a good opportunity.

My parents are annoying me by saying oh well good for him hes entitled to it etc etc but I just know if it was me doing it they would be going mad

sorry rant over and feel free to tell me i should get my head out my #### and live a little.

Contributions based jSA. He's paid into the system. He's entitled to claim it. Why bloody not. None of your bees wax.

YABU if he can afford his living expenses.

YANBU if he's currently living off benefits and/or sponging off your parents, or of he is deliberate running down savings and will claim benefits when he qualifies for them.

He literally won't be allowed to abuse the system. £80 a week for six months to abandon his travel plans? You make it sound as if he's pocketing thousands every month and living it up in the Seychelles at the taxpayer's expense. Get real. And stop judging him for something he probably had very little choice about.
It's possible your brother needs to get real too, of course. I won't repeat what so many others have already explained.

Classic case of 'not your circus, not your monkeys' I am afraid. He's an adult and free to live and/or fuck up his life as he chooses.

You treat your path and don't get emotionally involved in how he treads his.

You sound jealous of his situation to me. You said you think he was wrong to take redundancy from a good job and then you say you wouldn't be brave enough to do it - why implies to me that you'd like to?

He's in his 30s and wants a break from working. I don't blame him tbh. If he can use the system to get some funds for a few months after being in a job and paying his taxes then fair play to him. He will have to jump through the JSA hoops and prove he's looking for work though so that's on him really.

It's not your worry if he doesn't have a job. He doesn't sound like someone who cba to work. Let him crack on with his travels. I'm sure lots of us would love the opportunity!

one of our friends got made redundant and signed up for JSA and he had to demonstrate he’d applied for some ridiculous number of jobs per day/week, even those not remotely suitable both in terms of the job itself and the distance, he had to attend CV and interview technique workshops and physically see his jobs coach and sign on, he said it was a full time job and while he was job hunting, he and his partner stopped paying the school wraparound as it was an extra cost they decided they didn’t need to pay and he missed a call one day as he was on a school run and they said he “should” have been available during “normal working hours” and they had also paid in full for a holiday which they went on as they couldn’t get a refund and he had to lie and tell them he was poorly - they were horrendous - this was about 4
years ago post covid so not sure if it’s like this now??

Agree and I think you have to tell them if you are going out of the country, not sure if its over a certain length of time or just for a few days.

As long as he worked, paid taxes and earned his entitlement, I see no problem. I kinda get it - he shouldn't have been travelling. But you pay NI, so you should probably claim.

Its a different thing to 'welfare'

Agree and I think you have to tell them if you are going out of the country, not sure if its over a certain length of time or just for a few days.

I agree with this , you can take voluntary redundancy but only once it's offered , otherwise its just called leaving your job.
There is nothing at all wrong with him spending a bit of time and money enjoying himself before he starts looking for work IF he is using his own money .

I am shocked at how many people think it's okay for him the claim JSA when it sounds like he has no intention to actually looking for work and to go travelling instead. This is 100% abusing the system! Just because there are people who abuse it 'worse' it doesn't make OP's brothers intentions right.

Thankfully, I don't think he'll be able to do the travelling part anyway as he'll have to attend regular appointments (weekly or fortnightly) and show evidence of what he's been doing to find work. Unless he does a lot of short trips in between appointments!

he won't be able to go away for more than two weeks they make you come in and show all your job hunting aswell. he clearly thinks it's like the old days where you signed in and they left you alone

My sister is like this. Claims she is a single parent but her long term partner lives with her. Shes a nurse too. I don’t understand it as we weren’t raised like it but the one time I said something to my parents I was told to get off my high horse
I’d say you’re best staying out of it unless you wanted an argument on your hands

If the option of voluntary redundancy is present, it's likely that other compulsory redundancies are being mooted as well. I've been through both processes and would readily take voluntary redundancy and my chances on an uncertain job market over the stress and upset of the compulsory process.

Well done to your brother for taking back some element of control!

Also, you only get New JSA if you've paid enough contributions And it's time limited. I think six months or so..

OP, as kindly as possible, I think a LOT of these feelings are wrapped up with the fact that you’re worried about something that your brother “chose” (have you actually talked about this with him? Because taking voluntary redundancy is like giving up your seat on a plane and being compensated; if you don’t volunteer, someone will still be kicked off the plane and it might be you and you won’t be compensated as generously. You are essentially receiving payment for making an unpleasant thing less unpleasant for them by taking on some of the unpleasantness yourself). They also are probably very attached to the fact that your brother is the golden child, and as you say, your parents think him doing this is fine, but would have been unsupportive if you did this. But that is not your brother’s fault, so please don’t let it taint your relationship with him. He took voluntary redundancy instead of waiting around to be fired, and he’s now doing a normal thing by getting JSA, which means he’ll be looking for a job.

Also, can I just say - you keep re-iterating that he had a good job. If it was for a company doing layoffs, which isn’t a great sign; it may have been a good job at the beginning, but layoffs are brutal, and he may not have felt protected anymore’. He may have seen the writing in the wall. You’ll have to ask him.

He'll have to be in the country to receive JSA and have to meet the job search requirements (basically a full time job) and attend every 1-2 weeks. So he won't be travelling anywhere during that period.

Anybody who can do it without putting a home or children's security at risk is sensible to take voluntary redundancy as the alternative is staying put during what it (from experience) incredibly stressful 'consultation' periods where the same people who would have been accepted for voluntary are marked for redundancy anyhow - and being on the receiving end of compulsory redundancies with significantly lower payouts.

So, apart from it literally being impossible for him to both claim JSA and go travelling at the same time, taking the sensible option when it's clear what way the wind is blowing at work and not having the same sort of restrictions and obligations you have in your life - which is absolutely not his problem - how exactly is he abusing 'the system'?

Jeez, I'd just my own.
He will be required to work until he is 70 before pension.
Pacing yourself a bit along the way makes huge sense.

It's the system that allows this so people can take advantage if they know how to. However not sure if he will be able to the free wanderer as he will surely have to prove he's looking for work?

It won't be much, so maybe he just wants to prolong his freedom as he will have to come back to reality and the trudge. Xx

The only way you get away with this is if you have a job lined up to go to. When I got a job where I didn’t start for several weeks I then didn’t have to go in for meetings. I think they’ll just leave you alone in that time.

Jsa isnt means tested my relative got a £200,000 payout ( city job) and signed on the following week all legal and above board so it's the system thats corrupt not the individual.

He did have to be in the country and available for work though.

There are different types of JSA.
One is means tested, and one is not.
There is the same with ESA too.

It’s not corrupt..it’s not means tested..which makes anyone who has paid in within the rules eligible.

Means tested benefits cost far more to administer.

6 months non means tested benefit is entirely reasonable…particularly as it used to be a 12 month entitlement no more.

European countries pay a high proportion of wages…our JSA is a pitiful amount

The clue is in the name of the benefit - Job SEEKERs Allowance i.e. paid to those seeking work.

Whether anyone does or doesn't think the system is fair, that is what the allowance is for. If it was named Unemployment Benefit then fair enough, but it isn't.

It is a corrupt system if someone can receive 200 grand from their employer onna friday and claim from the tax payer the following Monday.

Why should the tax payer give someone in that situation a penny?

That is how CB JSA works.
Hate the game, not the player.