If you take a gap year, can you claim jobseekers allowance?

[RockyRoadToRhodes]

Just that really.
For various personal reasons my daughter is taking a gap year.
Can she claim JSA?

Is she looking for work?

She’ll have to meet the usual requirements for JSA which entail being available for and looking for work. It doesn’t matter whether she’s calling it a gap year and planning to go to uni. She’s unemployed and will have to go to the job centre etc.

Yes but she suffers from social anxiety and finds it hard.

Think you will find she has to claim Universal Credit providing she doesn't have too much in savings. She will then have to be actively looking for work or have a Fit Note to say she is unfit for work.

She could, but only for 6 months as that's the maximum length of time you can claim new style jobseekers. She'd also have to prove she's actively searching for work, you have to go to a meeting once a fortnight and provide evidence of your job search.

apologies for the add on question for this thread, whats the rules with universal credit and redundancy if you eg use some savings after redundancy can you then put a claim in for universal credit eg after a couple of months of the redundancy happening ?

She can only claim JSA if she has paid enough NI credits in the past 2-3 years, and I'm assuming she has not done that.

She can claim universal credit and will be expected to look for work. If her anxiety makes her too unwell to work then she can send fit notes to UC to be assessed as having limited capacity for work.

Is she getting help with her social anxiety? That sounds like what she needs for her short and long term future.

You can put in a claim for UC when your savings fall below £16000 no matter how long since you were made redundant. If you have paid NI contributions you may be able to claim jobseekers allowance which is non means tested.

A friend's daughter, who had struggled to get to school, was advised to try and find something. It was important she had routine and got out of the house. A volunteer role in the basement of a charity shop sorting out donations worked well, and she was slowly able to move into spells in the shop itself. It took more than a gap year but she finally and successfully made it to University.

Is she diagnosed as ND? Could she claim Pip?

Can she not just get a little part time job @RockyRoadToRhodes ?? JSA will result in her being relentlessly hounded by the DWP/Job Centre, and her life won't be her own. Could she apply for a 8-12 hours a week job maybe? That would pay as much as JSA I think.

I claimed it for a few months between jobs, my first time unemployed in 20 years of working as I was made redundant suddenly (company went under). It was horrible going into job centre being talked down to by a patronising man whose 'help' was not remotely useful, I was applying for jobs and I got one within three months but they hindered rather than helped. The money was helpful to bridge the gap but would be reluctant to do it again, especially with social anxiety, unless critical.