Job Seeker's Allowance (JSA)

Guide to Jobseeker’s Allowance

Rates

Under 25: £47.95 per week

Over 25: £60.50 per week

Couple (both over 18): £94.95 per week

To claim JSA you must: 

• Be unemployed, or working less than 16 hours/week

• Be 18 or over

  • 16-17 may be eligible if they have just left care or have had to flee home.

• Be capable of full time work

  • Periods of up to two weeks sickness are allowed

• Not be in full time education

  • However, many full-time College courses are described as ‘part-time’ for this reason. Studying at the Open University is allowed.

  • If you are disabled or a parent in full-time education, you can claim JSA during the summer break.

  • If you have been on benefits more than two years, your Employment Officer may give approval for you to take on a ‘qualifying course’ and stay on JSA.

• Not be a pensioner

  • Men aged 60-64 can claim JSA or Pension Credit

There are two types of JSA:

Income ased JSA is means tested. To be eligible you must:

• Have less than £16,000 capital

  • JSA rate decreases if you have £6,000 capital or more

  • The house you live in does not count as capital. Any other house you own does count, unless you are trying to sell it

  • If you try to get rid of your capital before signing on (eg. by buying a car or ‘giving’ money to a friend), they can find out.

• Your partner must work less than 24 hours a week

Contribution based JSA depends on your previous National Insurance contributions.

• To be eligible you must have sufficient NI contributions – meaning you’ve recently worked for four years or so

• This JSA lasts for only six months, after which you would go on Income-based JSA, or working tax credits.

• There are no limits on your capital or on the number of hours your partner works.

Jobseeker’s Agreement: This is drawn up by the Employment Officer and it states the terms you must agree to in order to receive JSA.

• You have 21 days to sign the Agreement, and your claim might be backdated once you sign. You can appeal the terms of the Agreement if they are too restrictive. You must do this within one month.

• The Agreement will state you must be available for work and prepared to work at least 40 hours per week. Carers and those with disabilities may be allowed to restrict themselves to less hours.

• You must be able to start work immediately, however:

• If you do voluntary work you should get 1 weeks notice to start work and 48 hours notice to attend an interview.

• If you are a carer - including looking after a child – you are entitled to 48 hours notice to start work

• If you do some other service: 24 hours notice to start work

• If you are working part time for pay, you must be available to start work at the end of your notice period.

• You will receive no JSA during the first 3 days of your claim

• You may be able to get a permitted period included in your Agreement – up to thirteen weeks in which you can restrict yourself to looking only for your normal job and rates of pay.

Sanctions: the DWP can sanction you if they decide you have not met the Agreement requirements. This can include:

• refusing a notified vacancy, defined as a job vacancy which the claimant has found out about from Job Centre Plus, who keep records of all the jobs their clients request information about.

• Missing a ‘Restart Interview’

• Not being available for or actively seeking work

• Voluntarily leaving work (see below)

• Refusal to attend a compulsory scheme

• You can lose your JSA payments for 2-26 weeks

• This does not affect Housing or Council Benefits

• The decision can be appealed

• If sanctioned you can apply for hardship payments which will effectively be reduced JSA payments

Delayed Payments: Get a crisis loan for living costs if JSA payments are delayed. This is payed back later, out of your benefits. In Edinburgh call 0800 328 3838. They must make a decision within four hours, and you can request a review of the decision if refused. Young and childless people are often rejected but if you keep applying for a loan you are likely to be successful.

Leaving a job

• If you voluntarily leave a job you will not be eligible for JSA.

• However you may be eligible if you say that you left due to harrassment; because the job made you ill; because you received another job offer which subsequently fell through; because you moved for a partner’s job; or because you left to look after a relative.

• If you were fired for misconduct you can be sanctioned up to 26 weeks.

• However, you can appeal this decision. As many employers use ‘misconduct’ as an excuse to lay off workers, the JobCentre will often accept that it wasn’t your fault.

   

Joint Claims: couples should only make a joint JSA claim if they are both jobseekers

Migrants’ entitlement to JSA: Those from countries within the EEC are entitled to benefits if they are defined as a worker – this includes unemployed workers and so includes JSA, but only if you have previously worked in the UK. This entitles you to JSA and Housing Benefit, but not Disability Benefit or Employment Support Allowance

The New Deal

For under-25’s: You will be put on the New Deal scheme after 6 months on JSA. This will mean:

• ‘Gateway’: 16 weeks of weekly interviews pressuring you to work

• ‘Options’: Compulsory full-time ‘work experience’ for 13 weeks with a company like ‘Action for Employment’.

• ‘Follow Through’: up to 26 weeks

For 25+: You will be put on the New Deal after 18 months. Similar scheme, but the ‘Options’ period is replaced with ‘Intensive Activity Period, also 13 weeks, and essentially the same. The ‘Follow Through’ period is shorter, 6-13 weeks.

• You must be signed off for 13 weeks in order the have a ‘new claim’ and therefore avoid being put on the New Deal.