Can SAHMs claim unemployment benefits?

[FairyMum]

Hello. Does anyone know if SAHMs can really claim unemployment benefits? My friend is married, doesn't want to work and now she wants to try claiming unemployment benefit.Does she really have the right to claim? Does anyone know?

I thought that the point of it was if you were actively looking and available for work.

If her dh works then NO she can't.

The only thing they could get is WFTC

HTH

If they are both unemployed, then the one that is looking for work claims Job seekers for the whole family i think.

If she lives with a partner who is working then the answer is probably no. If their income is low enough they could apply for Working Tax Credits (again provided partner is working).

if she has worked for so many weeks in the last year she can otherwise no they can claim Workibg tax credit and child tax (payable to her )if partner is working if she leaves him she can claim income support

how old is her child? if the income is low, even with ctc a wftc then she may get some income support but child has to be below school age. but generally i'd say no, as income support is cr*p money anyway.

Dh is working, and I'm looking for work ... did a three month contract, but am now back looking again I presumed I wasn't eligible to claim anything, but maybe I'm wrong?

Her child is 18 months and her DH earns around 40K. I thought the point with unemployment benefits is that it should be for people actively seeking work. She doesn't want to work, just to claim. I find it incredibly irritating, so was wondering if it is likely she gets anything.

she will get nothing if he is bringing in 40k.

The threshold for WTC is around £13,000 so they wouldn't be eligible for that. As someone else said, JSA is designed for people who are actively seeking work. The chances of her getting it are probably nil.

No way! Unless she claims illegally.
We are in that position plus with one 10 yr odl and one 18 mth old, dh earns pretty much the same as your mates dh and we live in one of the msot expensive areas in the Sth East. we manage pretty easily and have new car and stuff?
Is 40£k really too low to live off and would £26 pw make a difference really?
Bizarre

ok fairymum, just to let u know about benefits. i have 2 kids. one dd and dh are disabled. our allowence for benefits (not including their disability money) is £294 a week. which works out as errrrrrrrr sorry brain not in gear, some else do the maths to find out what we get a year.

with a healthy (am assuming here) 18month old their allowence would be a heck of a lot lower than ours.

Surely she doesn't NEED the money if her dh is on 40K ????

Perhaps she just wants her own bit of money iykwim. She won't get JSA though.

I thought you could claim a flat rate non-means tested JSA if you had paid national insurance contributions in the previous tax year?
Am I wrong?

iota - you can, but a condition of claiming is that you are actively seeking work.

And believe me (my Dad used to work for the DSS Fraud Department) they will eventually catch up with you. Does she want to be socked with a huge fine and possible imprisonment for falsely claiming? The DSS get especially grumpy in this kind of situation where someone didn't need the money (I know Dad said they would sometimes turna blind eye in some difficult circumstances, but someone with a £40k income and not actively seeking work - they'd love to catch her!)

susanmt - surely that only applies to income based JSA not contribution based JSA?

Well, I might just give them a helping hand to catch her in that case. I am not working my ass off so she can claim benefits from her hammock. Child in fulltime childcare by the way.....Grumph!

FM, is this person for real? Child in full-time care? Why, FFS? What does she do all day? (She said, righteously, from her perch in front of mumsnet screen, kids at school! )

According to my research, you can claim contribution based JSA of £55 pw for 26 weeks if you are actively looking for work. However it is based on contributions paid in the last couple of years.

I was made redundant after 20 yrs of work last year. I am taking a career break funded by my redundancy. If I wanted to work now, I could claim contribution based JSA, however if I wait another 2 years, until ds2 goes to school, I will get nothing.

How fair is that?

I am tempted to claim now....but am afraid I might get offered a job

Don't know if anyone has mentioned it but if you want to claim JSA you have to prove that you are actively seeking work. You need to go once a week to the job shop with your paperwork showing what you have applied for and they will recommend anything they have on their books for you and they get quite pushy if they don't think you are trying hard enough (DH used to work lots of short contracts, in the end it was more hassle than it was worth trying to claim). What your friend is trying to do IMO isn't on.

But if her child is in full time childcare, maybe she is actively seeking work? I suspect not from the tone of the thread. I do know of a SAHM who claims JSA. She went off for the mandatory inteviews and was told to send out some CVs. She did but hand wrote them, putting coloured flowers and hearts all over them, thinking it woudl be a deterrent. She was inundated with interview offers!

Not unless she is looking for work. Has she heard of tax credits.

I see the tax credits as a way of being a SAHM until my ds twins are at school and I can work p/t. I wouldn't dare claim for something I am not entitled to. If she gets caught fiddling the benefits system she will have to pay everything back. She will also have to prove she is actively looking and going to interviews.

The fact her DH earns that is insulting to people genuinely looking for work and those of us on much lower incomes who manage a budget. The world doesn't owe her a living!