Possibly dumb jobseekers allowance question

[COCKadoodledooo]

(does it have an apostrophe btw, no idea. That's not the dumb question..).

I'm looking for a job. Dh has retrained as a teacher and is overworked/underpaid earning half what he used to. Ds1 is at school so I can find something those hours, or evenings/weekends to avoid childcare bills at all.

Ds2 (15 months) is more of a problem, would def need childcare for him if I were to work in the day, but there's precious little (none!) to be had immediately locally. And anyway, we can't afford to pay for it before I have a job.

Sorry, rambling. What I'd like to know is if I could claim jobseekers whilst I'm looking? Or does the fact I'm not looking for full time/not necessarily able to start immediately count against me?

I've been looking/applying for a couple of months btw, but this just occurred to me.

Any idea?

Anyone?

u probably can, they will ask you though if you care for someone, although I don't think you have to show how your childcare arrangements work; the form is very lengthy and asks about when you lost the job etc etc, also when on JSA you need to have a record of at least 3 job search approaches each week to show every couple of weeks; you also need to specify what date you want to apply from

I dont think you would get income based jsa because of your husbands income, have you recently been working because that way you will get 6 months of contribution based jsa if you have paid enough ni

I think you have to be avaliable to start imediatly, but you dont neccissarily have to be looking for full time work