Can someone help please?

[YappityYapYap]

A friend of mine has lost her job and has came to me asking if I can help her with what she might be entitled to (I work in accounts, currently furloughed). She did the entitled to calculator and told me that all it said was contribution based JSA and child benefit (her DH works and earns slightly above minimum wage and they have one child). She asked me what she needed to have contributed in NIC's to qualify for contribution based JSA.

The thing is though, I have no idea! To me it looks to be that she needs to have paid 26 times the LEL in one of the last 2 tax years then paid or been credited with 50 times the LEL in both of the last 2 tax years. This works out at over £15,000 in NIC's for 2 years! That can't be right can it?

I do payroll but I have never dealt with benefits. I think she's relying on getting this £70 a week because her DH really doesn't earn a lot but just a bit too much for them to get UC.

Any help would be appreciated, I can copy and paste and pass it on. She's aware I've asked as we've been chatting on WhatsApp and googling and can't find an answer to this other than what I interrupted above. Thanks

If her household income is too high for anything else then if she is not sure if she is eligible she should just apply anyway. No loss if she doesn't get it as she can't apply for anything else.

If her dh earns just above minimum wage she probably qualifies for UC. Has she applied?

i've heard there can be a problem if people get tax credits, then that will be cancelled if they apply for UC, even if they end up not qualifying for the UC, they cannot then get back the tax credits, which will be cancelled from the date they applied for UC.
i am not sure about this, so she needs to check with some welfare website. but i heard something like this on a radio expert phone-in.
i cant claim anything so didnt listen avidly.

They have taken the detailed guidance down from the .Gov site to update it which is annoying. If she ants to talk to someone she could ringtone claim line or try to call or web chat Citizens Advice and they will be able to look up the detail of the rules.

No she doesn't qualify for UC. It sounds crazy but even with her DH only earning £1,400 after deductions, they say she isn't entitled to anything, I went through the calculator too to check for her! She was earning similar to her DH before she lost her job, they both did/do semi skilled jobs and work around each other to be there for their child who is 4. It's a lot to lose and no help available, well this JSA only. I'll tell her just to claim anyway.

Thankfully, she wasn't actually aware you can take a mortgage break (more of a book reader than a web browser, no Facebook type person) so I've informed her about this, she used the online form and that's in place now. I think this has temporarily sorted their situation so they will be ok. Hopefully she gets the JSA so that if she doesn't have a job in 3 months, it will help a bit. Crazy times. Stupid coronavirus

Assuming one of them is over 25 they would get £315.85 Uc per month on monthly wages of £1400 assuming her husband is paid monthly once a month. That also assumes that they are not ruled out of claiming UC by having savings over 16k .That compares to contributions based ESA of £74.35 per week. So not too much difference really except that the JSA would only last for 6 months. To claim New style Jsa she would have needed to have paid NI contributions for most of the tax years 2017-18 and 2018-19.

As long as she has earned at least £6,136 in the last two tax years she will meet the lower earnings limit criteria. My advice claim JSA and the worst they can say is no, the best is she gets it.

No she doesn't qualify for UC. It sounds crazy but even with her DH only earning £1,400 after deductions, they say she isn't entitled to anything, I went through the calculator too to check for her
@YappityYapYap unless they have savings over £16k you are wrong , they are entitled to UC. Also don’t use a calculator like u e entitled too. Work it out manually.

You just have to have paid “some” National insurance contributions for the last 2 years, one year I only paid £6 NI for the whole year and it still counted for JSA

@AldiAisleOfCrap, how do we do that please? All guidance seems to be getting updated right now so it's hard to find out. I've never worked out benefits before. If you asked me to work out how much contributions someone would make off their wage, I could do that in seconds as I do payroll but benefits? There doesn't seem to be black and white basic info out there. Thanks

I've done it manually and it says this:

£498.89 standard allowance (for a couple)

£277.08 of their one child

So total is: £775.97

However, the earnings over £197 a month will be deducted at a rate of 63p per £1 of UC entitlement so the amount that will be deducted (on earnings of £1,400 a month) will be: £757.89.

New UC entitlement will be £18.08 a month!

No housing element as they have a mortgage.

Seems ridiculous that if they rented a house for £600 a month and her DH packed in his job, they could get £1,375.97 a month in UC with the housing element and also a reduction in their council tax and free school meals so this would push them over the amount they receive in wages right now 😣. Doesn't seem right but that's how it is. If they rented, they would get a decent amount of UC but as home owners, they get £18.08 a month.

I know there's different help for homeowners but it's a loan essentially and only for the interest of the mortgage so it doesn't really help

The work allowance with no housing is £503 a month not £197.

When was their child born do you want me to work it out for you @YappityYapYap ?

@AldiAisleOfCrap yes please, that would be lovely of you! I won't reveal her childs exact birthday (I can't remember it) but I know he was born in November 2015. He turned 4 in November last year as I sent a present but for the life of me, can't remember which date!

Her DH takes home £1403.16 a month, he is paid on the same date every month and they get child benefit every 4 weeks. That's the information I know.

She is now unemployed and got her last monthly wage on the 25th of April so no more wages coming for her

2015 is good that means the higher element is applied. Will work it out now.

Oh and she is 35 and her DH is 41 I think? He had his 40th birthday sometime early last year.

I'm a bit younger than her (30) but we met a few years a go at a workplace we both used to work at

Couple element
Child element
£875.25

1403 - work allowance of £512 is £891

£891 x 0.63 is wage deduction of £561.33

£875.25 - £561.33 is Total UC £313.92

@YappityYapYap

@AldiAisleOfCrap that's great, thank you! She won't be wasting her time applying then

No it’s because even though you don’t get help with housing costs directly ie mortgage help you do have a higher work allowance.
JSA would be slightly higher at £322 a month but as pp says only lasts six months.
Personally I would claim UC as it would automatically adjust each month if income changes in the future.
Your friend can apply for an advance for the five week wait.

Yes it seems that they will be better off claiming UC then once she finds a job, they'll just become ineligible for it depending on what she earns. If I hadn't asked here, I'd have no idea about standard allowance or work element and neither would she so thank you very much and now a family of 3 are not worrying about the future so much. It's still a huge drop for them but that little bit of help from UC will make sure they don't end up in arrears with things