Im claiming uc for the first time (due to personal changes). I used to be on working tax credit etc)

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I will do that today as its alot to take in rn.

Can i claim for JSA later when im ready and not rn with the new uc claim?

(alot of personal things had changes....I've separated to be divorce (got 3 kids), ended my self employment job as it wasnt working out so im not working rn).

Thank you

I think you have a lot of threads going about the same thing, maybe you might find it easier to keep to one thread so you don't get mixed up. Hope you get sorted.

Jsa doesn't exist anymore. Uc is the single benefit now. Depending on the age of the kids you may be expected to start seeking work immediately as a condition of your uc claim.

@KateyCuckoo i agree as im confused on this bit 😁

@Lizzt2007 sorry its the "new style" jsa im talking about. Not the old jsa.

so basically i just need to make a new claim for uc and see if i need to start looking for a job now or not yet? (As just hoping i dont need to yet as my head is all over the place rn as im seeing a solictor for legal advice next week before i kick start the divorce 😔😔)

Contributions based JSA ( new style JSA) certainly does exist if you have paid sufficient national insurance payments over the past 2-3 years. the tax years that would be looked at if you make a claim soon would be 2021-22 and 2020-21. however if you claim new style JSA alongside UC you are no better off as it is deducted in full from UC. It may help with budgeting as it's paid fortnightly but there is no financial gain to claiming it. As soon as you make a UC claim you will have work search commitments unless you have a child under 2. these will start pretty much straight away I imagine and they can be quite strict. the only exemptions would be if you ahve been a victim of dv, when they may give you six months work search exemptions.

Lots of people get divorced whilst working full time jobs.

It's awfully stressful and I hope everything goes smoothly for you.
But if your children are an age where you'd be expected to be working x amount of hours I imagine they'd expect you to be job hunting up to those hours.