moving from IS onto JSA as son is 5,please tell me more

[thekidsrule]

hi,can anybody help

ive been a single parent for a long time to 3 sons,2 aged 12 and 1 aged 5

been on Income Support for years and now am being switched to jobseekers as my youngest is 5

at first i was fine about it but as the time is coming closer (2wks) till change im starting to panic

i havent worked for years and that would now come under minimum wage and unsociable hrs

the kids father died 3yrs ago and the youngest's father dosent want to know

i have a very very small family,my parents and a siiter that lives abroad and parents are frail,i have no childcare in that sense at all

basically im worrying myself silly about finding a job,childcare,ive lost alot of confidence and heard horror storys about sanctions imposed at the jobcentre for silly things

im sure other lone parents on MN have had a similar experience,could you tell me how was it switching over

one day im all gun ho about this being great for the family long term and another day im panicking

thank you

I think the job centre will offer you a skills/back to work course. When I was on JSA for three months last year I had to go to the job centre every two weeks to sign on and go through what efforts I'd made to find a job. You should be entitled to help with childcare costs through tax credits. Good luck. There are plenty of lone parents who work, we just have to be more adept at juggling!

I've always worked. It does involve a lot of juggling sometimes - I don't have any family nearby - but overall it's been fine. When I first became a lone parent I was getting a lot of tax credits, which really helped. But now my salary has gone up so I am quite a lot better off than I would have been on benefits.

Things you should start looking into are -

• childcare - does your DS's school have an after school club and/or breakfast club? If not, are there any local childminders or other parents who might be able to have him, say a coulpe of days a week? Or would your 12 year olds be mature enough to pick him up one or two days a week? You can look just for part-time work, but if you limit yourself to 9-3pm that will limit you a lot. If you could, say, do 3 whole days that will give you many more options.
• How independant are your 12 year olds? Childcare at that age can be hard to find, and might not be necessary. But if they're not used to looking after themselves for a while at home, looking after a door key, etc, it might be good to start encouraging a bit more independance.
• What are your options for the holidays? There are lots of holiday clubs where I live - which would take 12 year olds as well as 5 year olds. Or you might be able to do some swaps with other parents.
• What sort of work do you want to do? Or what are you good at? See if the jobcentre can help you out here, but otherwise chat to everyone you can think of - family, friends, other parents, etc to help you work out what you'd like to do. If you've been at home with kids for a long while you might not get a great salary from the start, but it needn't be minimum wage forever. You might want to look at re-training.

The jobcentre can impose sanctions, etc, if you refuse what they say is a reasonable job offer. So best if you can convince them that you are looking for sorts of jobs that you've got a reasonalbe chance of getting.

Good luck!

thanks for replys

am starting to check out after school clubs for youngest,other 2 should be ok though the school times they cant pick him of or drop him

yes id rather do longer days and get the hrs out the way,im not looking for a career so hopefully more choice hmmmmmmm

lots to think about

holidays will be a problem,probably most parents biggest headache

thanks again

I moved from IS to JSA a couple of years ago. My LP advisor said they were more understanding about the types of jobs I would be expected to apply for - you can restrict your search to school-hours jobs, and within a smaller travelling distance. There is a real shortage of childcare available here so I would never have been able to realistically work outside school hours, and there are very few jobs which are during term time/school hours only.

So for me, it wasn't a huge change from being on IS, it just meant that I had to sign on once a fortnight once I'd dropped the dc at school, but the amount I got was the same and signing on was always quick and the JC+ staff didn't put too much pressure on me to look for work. I have actually gone back on to IS now as I'm a carer for my mum, so I don't sign on any more which is a bit more convenient.

One thing to remember about thinking about going back to work as a Lone Parent is that while right now, you can claim Working Tax Credit as a Lone Parent if you work 16+ hours a week, from April next year, a Lone Parent will have to work 24+ hours a week to get it. So it would make sense NOW to look for a job that offers 24 or more hours a week, so that you don't suddenly find yourself having problems in April.

CardyMow - that's incorrect. It is only for couples that this is happening. Lone parents will still be only required to work 16 hours, whether you find work now or later.

cardy do you have a link to back that up?

Can't see nothing here but some advice for HE parents' and JSA reforms

It isn't current - the new 24 hr rule comes in for Lone Parents under the new Universal Credit that starts in April 2013. I have got this information from the Universal Credit Policy Briefing Notes. I can't link as I don't know how to link to a PDF file, but it is downloadable from the Internet. HTH.

Ugh, I have been thinking about this. I am due to be transferred to JSA this month. Can't believe they will eventually be putting in a 24h rule for LP's! Surely this will not do much but push up the numbers of unemployed (and make more of us feel grim signing on every 2 weeks, and increase admin!!)

They are not putting in a 24 hour rule for lone parents! This new rule is only for couples.

Briefing notes are a bit vague and don't specify a number of hours - here you are:
www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/ucpbn-12-work-search.pdf

You will still be able to limit it to what you can do within school hours, including travel time as long as your child is under 12.

www.cpag.org.uk/universalcredit/CPAG_universalcredit_factsheet_0212.pdf

That's the latest one - says likely to remain 16 hours a week for lone parents.

my teenage daughter works in a supermarket part-time and they get treated well and paid not too far off what i earn working in a government front line customer service post ! You also get a discount on your shopping, something that they (benefits) can't claw back from you. Obviously it is no ones dream job but as a step back into the work force it isn't that bad and they are good at letting people swap shifts as most of their workers are women with kids and students who have various lectures to attend. Having said that if you'd rather do long days then not sure it would appeal as much.