Can au-pair claim JSA

[ringing]

Hello, we have an au-pair from Spain, she lost her job in Spain before coming to work as an au-pair in the UK. She has said she has to go to the job centre to sign-on to claim her benefits as she was made redundant. Does this sound correct? I'm concerned as I don't know whether this is possible for au-pairs as we are now paying her £70 each week, plus food, board etc. can she still claim some kind of benefit and should she be declaring the money we are paying her? I have no idea what she has told them regarding her circumstances here and whether they know we are paying her. Any advice gratefully received as I have no idea about the spanish benefits system. Thanks

Hi ringing

I am unsure about this. I am in Spain and can ask some questions for you, but the system here is not like it is in UK. Here you only get what you have paid in so if she has worked a short while, she will not be getting much from the system. Also, where is she sigining on? Is there a facility that allows international 'signing on'?

As for declaring, this is a grey area. I believe she should in the same vein as window cleaners should/do.

How does this affect you if something is not as it should be?

There is a long thread on this very topic somewhere with lots of knowledgable contributions. Essentially I think that the answer was no.

You are employing her, and she is not "available to work" as you will be requiring her for 30 ish hours a week.

JSA is for people seeking work. If she's working as an ap, then she's not seeking work, Simples!

Thanks for your posts. I read the post in December about the au-pair who wanted to claim JSA but I thought this may be different as our OP was made redundant which I'm not sure if that can entitle you to JSA for a while anyway. (I was made redundant once about 12 years ago and I remember I could claim something for a few weeks, then after that it was only if you were actively seeking work) but I don't think it was even called JSA back then. Notamomtokids this doesn't affect me directly, but I'm very unhappy about people claiming benefits they are not entitled to, particularly with the current economic situation being so dire. We pay our taxes to support people when they are in need and our AP has a very comfortable position here.

Whether she was made redundant or not wouldn't make a difference. The question is whether she is looking for work or not....and as she has a comfortable job with you, she's not! And so she should not be entitled to double her money courtesy of the tax payer!

Hi fedupwithdeployment, that's what I was thinking. In which case what would you do? Speak to her directly or ask the job centre how it works? She's nice enough but not hugely committed and is only planning on staying until the summer holidays start, so I'm aware she may just decide to leave and go somewhere else if her situation changes so I guess I need to be prepared to find someone else quickly if need be.

If she is honest with the job centre about the number of hours she is working and the amount she is paid then she won't actually receive any money.

However, it might be possible that she needs to sign on to receive her redundancy pay? I know if you get made redundant here because the company goes bust so doesn't pay you redundancy, then the state will pay you some extra for 12 weeks if you claim JSA. I am surprised that the Spanish state would accept her signing on in another country though if that is the case.