Jobseeker's allowance & children

[BlueandPink]

My work hours were changed and because it was impossible to find suitable childcare to cover the new hours, I had to hand in my notice. However, what happens in practise when you applying for jobseeker's allowance and you've got children? Do I need to attend the interviews as other people? (I still would have the childcare issue) Furthermore, would I even get it when I was the one to hand in my notice (though I didn't have any other choice?) Also, I am only looking for part-time work anyway, do they require I am looking for full-time work?

Why not take the children with you? Surely they can sit quietly for the 20-30 minutes it will take?

If you resigned, you may not get paid the cash of JSA straight away, but there is o reason to delay signing on.

You can seek part-time work (adviser will talk to you about number of hours is OK).

You will need to go to interviews in the same way as anyone else, but IME there are often small children accompanying a parent to a job centre.

Assuming the children are pre-school BlueandPink so that would be quite difficult to take them with you? Is there anyone, friend or relative who could help. Maybe just give the job centre a call and Im sure they could explain everything to you.
Hope it works out for you.

I've got a baby and very active 3 year-old. I have taken them to a meeting at bank and it was REALLY stressful. If I would have people to look after them on regular basis, I wouldn't have this problem at the first place as then I would have been able to stay in my old job. :( So basically only if my DH takes a day off from work I would have childcare arranged. Also, other issue is that because of the childcare hassle, I wouldn't be able to accept a job just like anyway, as there are several months of waiting lists in the nurseries in my area.

I hate to be the voice of doom, but if you are not "available for work" you might not get JSA at all (whether it's because of lack or childcare or any other reason). You might want to see if you are eligible for any different benefits.

Or, as you have been working, see if you can keep your existing childcare in place.

Agree with Meditrina - you're not available for work therefore you may not be able to claim JSA.

You need to attend each signing on session and also go for interviews if you can't get someone to look after the children then you won't be able to fulfill these 2 criterias.

Given your DH works, you would only be eligible for contributions based JSA which is paid for 6 months only max (provided you have two full years NI contributions) however they may sanction you for upto 26 weeks for leaving voluntarily.

However if you cannot take up any employment offered then you may not qualify at all however given you did have childcare in place it cant be that hard to do the same again.

First of all, you left voluntarily and your partner works, so as HappyMum says you will likely be sanctioned for 26 weeks from claiming it at all and then it will be 6 months of contribution-based only.

Secondly, you must attend sign-on appointments to get JSA. Everyone does, your childcare issues are not their problem and they are not as excuse not to attend sign-on appointments.

Also, you need to be available to work.

When I claimed JSA, my Ds was very young and as such you are deemed to have caring resposibilties and are entitled to look for part time work.

I took him with me to the intervies as I had no one to look after him but explained that proper childcare would be put in place once a job was offered and showed eveidence of that to the advisor

I understand the fact that they require me to attend interviews regardless because otherwise everybody would have all sorts of rubbish excuses not to turn up. When it comes to "not being available for work" is bit bizarre, as I am willing and able, it is not my fault that childcare arrangements are such as hassle.

HappyMumOfOne, what do you mean by "given I had childcare in place, it can't be that hard again." YES IT IS THAT HARD. I booked a place for my children in nursery last May, to start this April. Unfortunately I can't hold on to it now, because if I don't have a job to go to in April, we can't afford it. Besides, it is virtually impossible to find a job now for those specific days I have booked the places.

When it comes to any sactioning, that is just grand that mothers are penalised in this way. I would LOVE to stay in my old part-time job if I could.

'When it comes to any sactioning, that is just grand that mothers are penalised in this way.'

It's not a penalty. The sanctions apply to anyone who leaves a job voluntarily, not just mothers.

Sorry I don't think you'll be eligible for JSA immediately as you resigned and your availability may be an issue when you are. To be able to claim you'd need to show the company were unfair ie did n't give due notice to enable you to make the necessary arrangements. You also need to be available for and actively seeking work, evidenced by applications, back to work type courses, trips to agencies and job centres etc. However depending on your dh's income and assets you may be eligible for Income support instead as your dc are young.

What childcare did you have arranged? I think you need to reconsider if you could take up the nursery place even if part time(presumably your elder child would get free hours) and ring around some cm's to look at potential vacancies and how much notice they might expect. Lots of women do manage to work with small children but you may have to accept that to do so you need to find a more flexible arrangement, either with childcare or when your dh is around to look after them.

Hmm, I understand people try to help me here, but if I say I actually had to resign from a job I really enjoyed doing ONLY because of not being able to find childcare to match my new hours, I am a bit surprised of the comments I am getting here. Nice to know that you see it the same as some chav resigning because she just couldn't be bothered to do any work.

My DH's income means that under no circumstances we could afford to keep the part-time nursery places if I am not working those exact days starting from April. Besides, of course I already had to give up on them as the fees need to be paid beforehand. However, he also earns too much for me to get income support. Though DS was born in January, he is not eligible for 15h of free childcare until after Easter and they charge full fees f.e. over school summer holidays. Of course I contacted all the local childminders when I heard my hours were changed, no luck. And DH works full time so in reality I could do only weekends or late evenings if I wouldn't have other childcare available. I could only look for a childcare when I would find a job to find out what is available in that exact moment. I can't really book a child minder beforehand, they cannot afford to keep a place open for me unless I pay the fees, otherwise I would take a place from somebody else.

What hours did you work and what did they change them too? Why was childcare not available - was it a night job? Could your partner not have done some of the nursery runs? All of this will be asked by the job centre with you leaving work by choice.

The reality is you would only get £60 a week JSA allowance for 6 months (providing you have two full years of relevant NI contributions), some of those months may not be paid due to the sanction for leaving work voluntarily. In order to claim you will have to attend every appointment they give you and agree to look for work. However given your posts you wont actually be seeking work as claim you have no childcare available anyway so the likelyhood is you wont meet the criteria for it anyway.

Your original post asked for advice but you dont appear to like the answers given but its only what you will be told when you apply.

Go the the citizens advice bureau and get some proper advice not the shite some people on this thread are spouting.

I used to work full day on Mondays and Wednesdays and then Friday mornings. My hours were changed to every week day from 8-12. My DH would have to take the children to nursery anyway because I start so early. Childcare is not available because of nurseries and childminders are fully-booked, in my case the nursery they were booked in, have places available for my new hours in November.

Furthermore,like I said, yes, I had to leave my job because there wasn't nursery places/childminders available for April and yes, in practise it may take months to get childcare arranged, but it is still a variable factor and it could easily be that f.e. in June I may find a child minder. Therefore it would be really unfair that I wouldn't be entitled to JSA because of an issue (=childcare) I have no control of.

I am really grateful of the information I have received here, i.e. Jobcentres treat everybody the same regardless of their circumstances. What I am miffed off is that I definitely do not feel like I am getting any support from this thread. Do you happen to have an army of nice relatives available to look after your children? I am so happy for all of you, mine are dead, working full-time or live abroad.

Presumably just working the 3 mornings was not an option pro tem until you could cover the other 2 ? See what the adviser says but I still suspect you will get sanctioned. Have you already worked out your notice or could you job hunt, while you still have some childcare in place. You have got very defensive over this. Go to the Job Centre and see what jobs which could fit your timings, then decide if it is realistic to claim to be available for work. Most employers would n't require an immediate start so you need to keep in touch with the childcare providers to be able to say what might be a feasible timescale at an interview.

To answer your question , no, no family to do childcare for us, hence why I was a sahm for 7 years.

No army of relatives to look after my child here too, I work and pay for childcare when needed.

Support is different to advice, you asked if you could claim JSA and if you would be expected to attend interviews etc. People responded to that request.

I would speak to the nursery again, if you were booked for three days anyway its very likely they could accomodate the other two mornings as what are the chances they filled the spaces on Tues/Thurs with two children to use up the rest of the space you were not using. You could alos ask your employer if you could use annual leave to cover the other two mornings for a short while or ask to tag some parental leave onto your maternity leave.

When I claimed JSA I took my very lively child along to the interviews, I actually found the staff really helpful and sympathetic, they did not keep me waiting and were very professional and understanding of my situation(in actual fact they are keen to get you in and out as soon as possible as they have a fairly strict time table) - my ability to work was restricted by both childcare and the fact i was fairly heavily pregnant, they sat down with me and worked out what I could do and filed in the forms etc accordingly. Not a nightmare experience at all. My experience of dealing with their idiots over the phone re payment etc is another matter though!!!!