How do you claim job seekers allowance? How do you what benefits you are entitled to?

[HelloMama]

We recently moved back to our home town as we were priced out of London and had to move quickly when our house sold. I have got a good job, but it is only part time hours (+ overtime). DH has been looking after DS fulltime whilst I rake in as much work as I can get. We are all living with my parents. Now the time has come for us to move out for sanity reasons. We have put DS in a nursery 2 days a week (my basic hours) and DH has been applying for lots of jobs for the last few weeks, but no luck yet.

How does he go about applying for job seekers allowance? Would we be entitled to other benefits such as housing benefit or help toward our childcare costs? Where do we go to find out what we are entitled to? We do have some savings which we made on our place in london, but we haven't really got a hope in hell in buying again here as wages are so low. Will we have to use up all our savings before we can get any other help?

Thanks.

bump! anyone?

Go to or phone the local job centre or CAB.They ca advise what you are entitled too.
Depends how much savings you have.

www.direct.gov.uk/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/fs/en

The above should help

If your DH wants to claim you need to get him down the job centre asap. They can also advise on any other benefits and how to get them

he won't get jobseeker's if you're working over a certain number of hours of week.

BUT, if you are working 16+, you can apply for working tax credit and he for child tax credit. you do have to declare all your assets and any benefit you are receiving.

housing/council tax benefit is available to those who rent their property - but you do have to declare any and all savings and yes, they do take that into account.

I am only contracted 10 hours basic, although I always work over that in overtime. I will make sure DH goes down the Job Centre, I just have to warn him what to expect - you know what men are like!

it's a means-tested benefit, as are all these things, so the Job Centre will be able to tell him if he is eligible and w/his application if he is.

it's £54/week.

housing benefit is a separate application, of course, done thru your council.

If he is eligible for contributions based JSA it is independent of anything that you earn.

HTH

Thanks for all you replies, I will forward this thread to DH to help him out! :-)