Job seekeers allowance and the discretionary grant - anyone know about?

[maggiethecat]

My niece has been on contributions based JSA which is about to come to an end. She applied for the 300 pound grant to help her in getting back to work but was told that it was unlikely that she would get it. Does anyone know the criteria for the award or, being discretionary, does it mean the job centre can grant these however they see fit?

Hi Maggie, do you mean the sure start grant thats £500? I'm about to apply for that, and I was told you either need to be on JSA [income based] or income support/maternity allowance. She should see if she can get on income support, its more of less double JSA and then she should get the surestart grant. Has she applied for the health in pregnancy grant too? the £190, that should be a big help for her, although i applied 3weeks ago and still not heard anything =[
Hope she gets it sorted
xx

Income support is more or less double JSA?

maggie i'm not sure what grant you mean but this might help.

I'll pass info on to her as I'm not clear myself.

maternity allownace sorry, its [upto] £125 a week, whereas JSA is £100 every 2 weeks