can I claim JSA when self employed

[Marabou]

I realise I should just call Job Centre Plus, which I will, but before then I wanted to see if I could also get some advice on here..

So my situation is:

DS, my first child is 10 months old. I was on maternity leave for 7 months after which I was due to go back to work. However, my flexible working request was not accepted and I was left with no other option but to resign. I had worked for this company for 4 years. After resigning I was lucky enough to get work from another company working from home evenings and weekends as a self employed contractor. However, despite a good start, the company now has no work to offer and last month I earned about 70 percent less than I had anticipated and this month I will presumably not earn more than maybe £50 :(.

So I applied for housing benefit, as at the moment we have no money left for food let alone our other bills after my DH has paid the rent from his salary. The lady at the housing benefit office said I should also try JSA. But I had a quick look on the rules and it says you have to be ready to work 40 hours a week and to start work within something like 2 days after accepting a job offer. The problem is, I don't feel as though DS would be anywhere near ready for nursery yet and even if he wasn how would I get a place for him within that time frame?! I had thought to look for part-time work in the weekends, when DH could be home with DS and then when things hopefully pick up again, I could do my self employed work in the evenings during weekdays. But can I claim JSA if I'm only looking for work under such restricted terms?

I used the entitledto-calculator and we did not qualify for WTC without any childcare costs and I know they will stop the CTC as well at the start of the new tax year..

Have you read this section on the DirectGov site?

Hi there and thanks for your reply.

Yes I had actually read it and that's where I got the information about having to be available to work 40 hours/week..

So I took a shot and went into my local Job Centre Plus today and was met with a terribly rude and patronising lady. She basically said that I had to be available to work 40 hours/week and there were no exceptions to this rule (even though on the leaflet I had downloaded on the direct.gov-website it had said there were some exceptions). When I asked her what would happen if I got a job offer and would have to start work straight away, how could I prepare childcare arrangements with such short notice. So she said I should look for a nursery or childminder, who would accept a deposit payment now with the view of me starting work within the next few months..

It's the choice you have to make. Do without JSA and take any job you fancy, any hours. Or apply for JSA and then be subject to the rules. If you're really struggling to make ends meet one one salary you'll have to take a job and DS will have to adapt to nursery. Is it just basic household costs that are causing the problem or are there debts in the mix? If the latter, you might benefit from seeing one of the free debt advisory service. If it's the former, it might help to contact all the companies you pay each month and see if you can negotiate better terms, payment holidays or whatever to tide you over. They tend to be more cooperative if you explain the problem up front rather than go into arrears.

I don't understand, why cant you and your DH get WTC?

Hey and thanks for your replies.

CogitoErgoSometimes , yes I thought so too.. I mean that we'll have to decide whether DS has to go to nursery or not. There are debts that are causing problems too; we're currently on a private company's debt management plan, but their fees are proving to be too high, so this weekend we are planning to call Payplan to find out if we could switch to them..

Jellykat, hm, I'm not sure why we can't get WTC, but the calculator doesn't award any and when I phoned the TC Helpline two days ago to update our income details for the current tax year, the guy just said our CTC will stop at the beginning of the new tax year and didn't say anything about getting WTC..

Surely you should be claiming income support as you have small children, not JSA?? If you both earned too much last year then they will not award it this year as they work a year behind IIRC, you can ask them to go on this years earning though. I'd go to the CAB, they are better then the job centre.

The JobCentre are not famous for giving accurate advice on benefits, even JSA.

You might get a better result if you make another appointment, with a different staffer, and start from the question "This is our income and employment, what benefits are we entitled to?" Also take in printouts of their website if you think they're going to argue.

It certainly used to be the case that Income Support could accommodate variable freelance income - with a lot of painful paperwork. There are technical problems around being Self-Employed (which might not apply if you're regularly getting work from a single employer).

If the JC aren't helpful, Citizen's Advice are the ones who can usually sort you out - though unsurprisingly they're rather busy...

x-post with Lady Sybil!

I can get that you maybe don't qualify using last financial years figures, but you're self employed now.. When i went SE i had to predict my income for the next financial year, and at the end show actual earnings.. my WTC was adjusted accordingly at the end of that..

I would pop into your CAB, something doesn't seem right.

Only certain groups of people can get Income Support, line parents with young children, certain carers etc.

Do you have a DP working FT? It's highly unlikely that you'll get JSA either unless he is on a low PT wage? Also, you should get CTC unless your DH earns too much. In which case you won't get JSA, but in any case you aren't meeting the conditions of entitlement which are basically actively seeking and being available for ft work.

Try and go to your l

Stupid phone [mad]

local CAB they will check all this for you and ring people up if needs be.

I'm wondering if you have a CTC overpayment which they are recovering automatically from last years amounts that's why this years will be stopped?

You only have to be available 16 hours a week if you care for a young child. I am claiming contribution based JSA at the moment, which may be an option if you worked full time during the last 2 complete tax years.

Thank you so much for your replies, I really appreciate it!

SerialKipper, I went to the JC with the intention of doing just that i.e to ask what we might qualify for, but it all went wrong from the start. I basically got there pushing DS in his stroller to find there were quite a few steps to get into the office and next to them one of those small lifts for wheelchair users with a buzzer to ask for assistance. The reception desk was right in front of the door, so the lady there could see me ringing the buzzer trying to figure out how to get in with my stroller and she just ignored me so I finally just carried my son up the stairs in his stroller. Once in, she just told me coolly that the lift was for wheelchair users only.. Later on the security guard there told me she should have just called him to come and help me..

Anyway, I was thinking to call the job centre plus helpline instead.. Also I will definitely make an appointment with CAB. I will try to get one in my nearest children's centre, as I noticed from their programme you can book an appointment with an advisor from CAB twice a month. Thank you for the tip, I hadn't come to think of them!

Jellycat, I think maybe that's the reason they didn't even suggest that we might qualify for WTC, because of our previous tax year's income. I find it near impossible to estimate at the moment how much I might earn next tax year, as the company I work for have told me they simply don't know when they will be able to offer me work again. I wonder if we might qualify with just DH's income at the moment. I'll need to check that..

I am claiming contribution based JSA at the moment having been made redundant last year. I have adhered to their rules in that I will accept any job and arrange childcare for 2 DC under 3.5yrs with 48 hours notice.

I have been applying for jobs and providing evidence when signing on every fortnight, but as there are no jobs I have not been succesful in receiving a polite thank you for your application let alone an interview!

As DP earns more than £105.75 pw once my JSA expires (which I believe is after 6m), I fall off the stats as he is expected to support me and our family.

On another point, a friend of mine recently seperated amicably from husband and resigned from a part time job. Social are paying all her living costs and the JC accept that she can't work as she has a DS under 3 to care for and as such she only has to go into (the same jc as me) every 12 weeks!!!!

This is where the system seems to fail sometimes.

I think maybe if you get your DH to apply for WTC and CTC based on his earnings and hours (presuming he works at least 24 hrs a week from April), then when you need to confirm at the end of the year, you add any hours you have worked as his partner (from what you're saying it won't be much at all) you may get further?..

Possibly the same for you kd73 ?

I really don't think the JC know what's going on atm! I've always found them pretty useless at the best of times.

Hm, so it really seems to depend on who you see!

vj32, so if I would start applying for jobs where I could work weekends and possibly evening making it a total of 16h/week, I could qualify for JSA? I have worked ft for the past 2 full tax years.

kd73, how will you arrange childcare within 48 hours of potentially getting a job offer, or have you just given up on getting one?

Thanks Jellykat but I am a meeting with CAB and they confirmed that I am only entitled to CTC at £34 pm

Regarding arranging childcare within 48 hours, it has not been a problem as I can't get an interview let alone a job

Right so I now managed to get an appointment with CAB at the children's centre next week. Was very lucky to get someone on the phone on a Saturday..

Hm kd73, do you mind me asking where you live? I'm in London and was just wondering how it is out there job-wise.. I know of course it's terrible at the moment no matter where you are and what your background is:(.. Haven't been looking in a few years and have no idea what to expect, but I suppose I shouldn't expect much. I was just thinking if I would dare take the risk and just sign on without paying the deposit for the nursery, because at the moment we really don't have the money and I don't think they're refundable in case I still don't have a job after a few months..

I am based in the Midlands. Always found new employment opportunities in the past easily as I have 20+ yrs experience working in offices of the financial sector and have been well paid.

Not even getting interviews this time as I don't have the admin experience in nurseries/ schools / shops / manufacturing / engineering backgrounds. I don't even look at salary and would accept a minimum wage job!

I have until recently been paying for 1 child to go into nursery 1 day a week, this costs £127.50 pcm. Without a job this was not viable.

I have been signing on with no backup plan for childcare in place. If a job opp arose, I would either find a nursery really fast (agreeing to start in say 4 weeks) or turn down the position and lose benefits. Have been signing on since November now and had 2 interviews despite sending off numerous applications

Hope this helps and good luck with your search

Marabou, noting that you are going to the childrens centre next week, have you considered a PLA (pre school learning alliance). Just put DS2 into one as they charge £3.10 per hour, we have opted for this as DS1 day nursery was full to capacity and I did not like the other nurseries in our area.

Oh gosh, I don't mean to sound depressing, but that just sounds really bad ! Hm, I won't be expecting much indeed... I have nearly 10 years experience in aviation, mainly in various admin roles, but I have a law degree and ideally would like more legal experience, anything really. The only thing is, I'm sure it will be difficult to find a role where I could work part-time, let alone weekends. Thank you for the tip with the PLA; I had a look on their website and saw that there were quite a few in my area. I'll need to investigate that further. Wau, that's a big save for you!

My jobseekers agreement at first said I had to apply for three jobs a week. Now it says 2 jobs a week, and they don't push that - I just need to provide evidence I have looked. Then they look in the JC website, and see that no, you can't get an admin job for two full days a week (rather than a few hours a day) then I go home. The people are nice and reasonable (once they establish you are looking and are not taking the piss!).

I have worked for 7 years and have a postgraduate qualification, so they basically said you know what you are doing, ask if you need help, and that is about it. They have people who really need help to worry about. I got an interview for the first job I did apply for, and have written a new CV. I am applying for public sector type jobs where each application takes 3 or 4 hours. Going to the JC isn't that scary - just annoying. I think you need to be available for an interview at short notice - but an employer wouldn't usually expect you to start immediately. The jobcentre staff I have met (4 so far!) are quite understanding. Could your DH (theoretically at least) get time off if you have an interview?

It is definitely 16 hours minimum - I was told this last week in my interview.

But - if you are claiming JSA contribution based it works on the last 2 complete tax years. So if you have been on mat leave like me and don't have complete contributions for the current year, make sure you apply before the end of March - in fact you can do it online now!

(And I have found the security guards really nice and my local JC fairly inaccessible with a pushchair too!)