From Income Support to Jobseekers Allowance?

[valhala]

Hi everyone,

I have just been summoned to attend a Jobseekers Allowance changeover appointment as I am the lone parent of 12 and 14 year olds and am currently in receipt of Income Support. Although I stopped HE-ing at the end of last year I am still concerned about the effect of the new legislation upon lone parents who home-school children over 12 years of age.

It seems that after the original petitions were set up parents have gone surprisingly quiet on the issue. I wondered whether anyone here has been required to claim JSA rather than IS and if so what they have experienced and how they have coped, and, very importantly, how they can be helped.

I am determined to battle for the right for every parent to HE if they so wish, regardless of their marital status or financial circumstances and would be grateful to hear of any way in which I can help others carry on the fight. I really do think that it is vital that this issue is kept in the spotlight and that a fair system for HE parents is introduced.

I'd appreciate your views, experiences and pointers as to what I can do, not least, if I'm honest, out of selfish motives as I may decide that would benefit my daughters to be HE'd again in the future.

Sorry but I don't think you have a right to HE and receive benefits. Why should other people go out to work and pay taxes to support you having an alternative lifestyle choice when so many mums cannot spend the time they would like with their own kids due to financial constraints? No one has to HE (unlike carers) - it is a choice and I, for one, do not wish to fund others who do it when there are alternatives provided. Single parents of olderkids should also consider the fact that they need to model the world of working etc for their children. I really object to people who don't contribute to society but just want to take and take because they think that their own 'rights' to do whatever they please are more important than working to pay their own bills.

'they have put my available working hours up to 25 hours through no choice of mine. 9am-3pm. is this legal?'

Yes. That is not a standard full-time workweek. Your available hours could be put up to that.

Also, a 14-year-old child is able to legally stay on his/her own whilst a parent works, so you will not be considered as having a childcare issue.

Your child tax credit and housing/council tax benefit are calculated based on your being an income-based JSA recipient. If you read your CTC award, it will read something like:

Your name
You are a recipient of income-based Jobseeker's Allowance

If you are no longer in receipt of this benefit, because you failed to sign on, it's entirely possible the other benefits will be affected.

Have you joined EO's single parents email support list?
I know this has been a hot topic of debate there and some folks there are up on the latest on this.
Do join if you haven't already and mention this there.

And people wonder where the stereotype that all benefits claimants are on the fiddle comes from.

The age is dropping to 7 in October for income support.
HE's are doing a "job" they are educating their child and also saving the taxpayer thousands of pounds per year - which incidentally goes back to Central Government, so why shouldn't they be entitled to the pittance that IS pays ?

Solution...HE'rs are no longer entitled to IS once their youngest reaches 7yo, but are instead given every penny each year that the LEA would give a school in respect of that pupil. Thus the government actually spending more money than IS would have cost.

I'm now concerned that I may be unable to dereg my DS2, as I was considering HE'ing him from the start of Y2. He will be 7yo in the November. If I cannot find a suitable placement for DD before September, I will also be HE'ing her. She is 12yo. WTF am I meant to do with an asd & SN DC to make myself 'available for work' if I'm HE'ing her. Which I'd be doing in order to give her a (slim) chance of independant life as an adult rather than her being in supported accomodation for ever, thus being a drain on the government.

Without either a suitable placement or HE'ing, DD will always need outside support. That I will not always be able to provide, as I am not immortal. So WHY shouldn't I be allowed to HE her??

Note, I know that I personally may have an out from JSA if the existing loophole in the ESA support group regs are sorted out, as I fall into a 4 week period of people who are disabled but DON'T have their benefits protected, thus am on IS as an LP with SDA(severe disablement allowance), and if this is sorted by the DWP before November, I don't have a prob with HE'ing.

Why SHOULDN'T ANYBODY who wishes be allowed to HE their DC's? Make the Father's of the HE'd by LP's DC's work and pay the costs involved in the LP staying out of work to HE, not rag on the LP who is doing the best for their DC's. Why should an LP give up on HE just because it might costs the gov. £XXX money in one area (IS) when they're SAVING £XXXX money in another area (costs of LEA providing state education, and often SN help as WELL)

WHY oh WHY on MN is it always the women blaming other women for being LP's on benefits, and not them blaming the MAN who is no longer in the picture?? FFS this is the ONE thing about MN that REALLY cheeses me off.

I misread you at first, loudlass. I thought you were saying "tis no problem. The government gives us the money that would otherwise go to the LA to provide a school for our children" and I wondered what planet you lived on... and then I realised that you were suggesting this as a solution.

I think it should be offered by the government as an alternative, but only as an option. If an HE family chose to take the money, they would then be required to jump through various State imposed hoops. If a family chose not to be receiving that money, they would not have to jump through the hoops. He who pays the piper calls the tune.

I personally have the luxury of not being a lone parent, and would not touch government money with a bargepole, but it's easy to be smug when there are two parents living together with time for one to work and one to HE.

I don't see any true issue with the policy (sorry) surely a home edding parent of an older child should be able to work 16 hors and then get wtc etc. and leave the child either alone or in some kind of group activity/childcare which would be good as socialisation for the children.

IN the case of the children having mental health issues/physical difficulties the parents should receive a carer benefit.

i HE my 2 children aged 11 & 12 and have been for the past year, i was recently called in to change over from IS to JSA the person who filled in all the paper work lied on the form when i told her i have no one to look after my children, she said "i have to put some thing so im going to write you can work between 2pm and 7pm every day" i didnt feel i had any choice and the only information she gave was that if i didnt let her write that all money would stop, i am also moving 92 miles away in a week yet still expected to look for work here??? also added to the hours you are can work they add an hour each way for travel so from 1pm to 8pm i have to work yet still be here in the day to HE? there is a petition at this web site www.freedomforchildrentogrow.org/ssac.htm

The CAB are investigating how honest "work-focussed interviews" are being conducted krayzie.

Go in to your CAB office and ask for the "Fair Welfare" Leaflet. Or look up this web site www.citizensadvice.org.uk/fairwelfare or talk to CAB branch staff.

krayzie the person who filled in your forms was trying to do you a favour. In order to satisfy the criteria to qualify for JSA, you need to be both available for and actively seeking work for each day of the 2 weeks over which your payments cover. If you say you are unavailable, the staff are then obliged to suspend your money and refer the claim to an independent adjudicator, which can take weeks/months.
The system is very flawed, but if you keep telling the staff you are not available, you leave them with no option but to stop your money.
Also, you may be moving away, but you could make enquiries into work in your new area. That would count as legitimate jobsearching.

hello can anyone help me????????????i'm a single mum of 3 on bennifits at the moment, my eldest son is 19 and in university but has to come home for 3 months a year, bceause of this i have to pay council tax for him even though i don't have to pay for myself, if he starts work while home will this change the amount i have to pay and will it affect my jobseekers bennifit, does anyone know?

It is a lifestyle choice-fine if you pay for it yourself.

Hi Tracey,

The home education board might not be the best place to ask your question. I don't know the other Mumsnet boards so well - have a look round to see whether there's a board about benefits, or maybe ask on the Education board?

my daughter homeschools her 12yr old son and has gone on to jsa she has told the job center she s homechooling but they have said she can get a part time job 20 hrs a week so shes just juggling home schooling job seeking and takes her daughter to school and housework with help from family shes also one parent famly she hasnt much time for anything else the jsa also want her to visit job search once a week

Expat in Scotland, I'm a big supporter of HE and I want to reply to what you've been saying.

There is an argument that mothers who HE their children are providing more of an economic benefit than if they sent their children to school. For one, there's the issue of the cost of a school place. These parents are saving the state that money which, if you have a few children, could total £20K - £30K per annum. Then there's the issue of how those children are placed to contribute to the economy when they grow up. It could be argued that these children have a superior education and are going to be above average contributors once they reach adulthood.

If the above is the case, would you agree the state is better off paying these parents to stay at home and HE?

However, by that same token, if I send my children to a private school I'm saving the state money. And there's real evidence that children from private schools do better when they enter the workforce and they contribute proportionately more to the national economy.

Using the previous logic it makes sense for the state to pay for my children to attend a private school. I wouldn't mind Eton. The fees would come out of what's already a very tight state budget and something would have to give somewhere. I wonder if the benefit claimants wouldn't mind losing a bit of their benefits to pay for my children to attend Eton.

I also think this is a lifestyle choice which shouldn't be funded by the tax payer. If you can't afford to HE without state help then basically you can't HE.