The Student Room Group

Can you claim JSA if you work under 16 hours?

Basically i start a job in september as a special needs teaching assistant, but its only 15 hours and 50 mins a week. Ive looked on the net it says if you work under 16 hours you can claim JSA? is it a different amount of JSA? Just worried because i'm not going to get much money from those 15 hours and 50 mins.
Anyone had a job thats less than 16 hours and claimed JSA?


thankyou! :smile:

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Protip: Job seekers allowance

Stop trying to get more money from the state and work for it like honest people do.
Reply 2
Original post by DarylDonnes
Protip: Job seekers allowance

Stop trying to get more money from the state and work for it like honest people do.


I am going to be working, thankyou! But the hours arent enough for me to live on and i am trying to find a second job but its hard as this job is far from home and both job hours need to not clash!
Technically you can. But I heard you have to prove while on the job with less hours that you are trying to look for a job which has 16+ hours.
Reply 4
I did years ago when I worked only 10 hours a week on a poor wage. But they still rejected me. B******s.
Reply 5
Original post by DarylDonnes
Protip: Job seekers allowance

Stop trying to get more money from the state and work for it like honest people do.


This.
Reply 6
Original post by ifstatement
Technically you can. But I heard you have to prove while on the job with less hours that you are trying to look for a job which has 16+ hours.


thankyou :smile:
Original post by Gemma16
I am going to be working, thankyou! But the hours arent enough for me to live on and i am trying to find a second job but its hard as this job is far from home and both job hours need to not clash!


Ah yeah, I forgot that claiming JSA is working... damn, how stupid am I...

Protip: You completely missed the point.
Original post by ifstatement
Technically you can. But I heard you have to prove while on the job with less hours that you are trying to look for a job which has 16+ hours.


This

You can claim JSA while working less than 16 hours, however you have to show that you are looking for fulltime work, and you have to be willing to give up your <16 hours job for a fulltime one.

Also they deduct what you earn from your benefit, so for example if you are entitled to £65 a week JSA, and you earn £50 a week from your part time work, you will only receive £15 JSA.
Reply 9
Its very easy to claim whilst working, when i graduated i worked every saturday and stil got jsa.. blagging that you have been looking for jobs is so easy as well.

My opinion on mooching: Take it. Tax is state sponsored theft so you might as well get what you can. If your looking at it as sponging then you will pay it back a hundredfold anyway.
Reply 10
Original post by DarylDonnes
Ah yeah, I forgot that claiming JSA is working... damn, how stupid am I...

Protip: You completely missed the point.


I know JSA is for people thats looking to work but it also says if you work under 16 hours you can still claim. I did this thread to ask people if they've been in this situation, not to get helpless stupid replies, but hey its TSR !
Reply 11
Original post by disposablesteve
This

You can claim JSA while working less than 16 hours, however you have to show that you are looking for fulltime work, and you have to be willing to give up your <16 hours job for a fulltime one.

Also they deduct what you earn from your benefit, so for example if you are entitled to £65 a week JSA, and you earn £50 a week from your part time work, you will only receive £15 JSA.


thankyou very much! but its a 3 month contract, so could i leave the less than 16 hour job? i am still looking for full time jobs and applied all over but don't hear back.
Original post by DarylDonnes
Ah yeah, I forgot that claiming JSA is working... damn, how stupid am I...

Protip: You completely missed the point.


I think its you who is missing the point, not only of this thread but of our benefit system as a whole.

A person who is only working 16 hours a week is perfectly entitled to claim job seekers allowance, as part time work may be the only work available. It doesnt mean that person doesnt want full time work at all.

Claiming JSA is not simply about money, it also ensures that you keep up to date with paying your National Insurance when you otherwise cant afford to.

Now if someone is refusing to find work at all, then of course they're not entitled to claim anything. However if you read the OP's post properly, thats not the case here.

protip: know what your talking about before posting, and maybe you'll post something constructive to the thread instead.
Original post by Gemma16
Basically i start a job in september as a special needs teaching assistant, but its only 15 hours and 50 mins a week. Ive looked on the net it says if you work under 16 hours you can claim JSA? is it a different amount of JSA? Just worried because i'm not going to get much money from those 15 hours and 50 mins.
Anyone had a job thats less than 16 hours and claimed JSA?


thankyou! :smile:


I think it's income support, but usually it's on a sliding scale depending how many hours you work, it won't give you much at all because it would only be payment for 10 minutes a week as far as I know.
Original post by disposablesteve
I think its you who is missing the point, not only of this thread but of our benefit system as a whole.

A person who is only working 16 hours a week is perfectly entitled to claim job seekers allowance, as part time work may be the only work available. It doesnt mean that person doesnt want full time work at all.

Claiming JSA is not simply about money, it also ensures that you keep up to date with paying your National Insurance when you otherwise cant afford to.

Now if someone is refusing to find work at all, then of course they're not entitled to claim anything. However if you read the OP's post properly, thats not the case here.

protip: know what your talking about before posting, and maybe you'll post something constructive to the thread instead.


Protip: I already knew that.

Protip: My post stated that I don't think it is right to claim additional benefits.

Protip: Just because free money is available, it doesn't mean you have to take it.
Original post by Gemma16
thankyou very much! but its a 3 month contract, so could i leave the less than 16 hour job? i am still looking for full time jobs and applied all over but don't hear back.


I'm presuming you mean, you'd be in contract with the employee, so you mean in regards to having to leave the job for a different one on order of the Job Center? In which case, i'm not sure but I'd think that the job centre would be fine with you seeing out the contract, as it is only 3 months.

In my opinion, the job centre would advise you to take the job, as any job is a good job even if its temporary and part time.

While signing on you would still receive some financial help (depending how much you earn in the job), and they would gladly help you find either a full time position for when your contract was up, or even another part time job that fits around the working hours of the other one. In my experience, the job centre staff can be quite helpful, so it may be useful to make an appointment at your local job centre to have a chat and see what help is available to you.
Reply 16
Original post by DarylDonnes
Ah yeah, I forgot that claiming JSA is working... damn, how stupid am I...

Protip: You completely missed the point.

Hi, would you like me to teach you how to read? It will be a long and arduous process, but, at the end of it all, you will stop making yourself look like a total and utter moron on internet forums, and your life will be that much better. However, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're trolling, rather than just stupid.



Anyway, 15 hours and 50 minutes? lol, I don't know how forgiving they will be of 10 minutes, they might just say you're on 16. As far as I'm aware, you get paid less on JSA when you work, so you'd only be getting like a pound a week, though I'm not sure about that. JSA don't actually help you look for jobs just to point out, so if you're not getting any decent amount of money from it, it's really not worth the hassle.
I believe so...I have a question of my own...could I claim JSA while waiting to get into university? I believe by doing so I will have a better chance of finding a part time job:smile: and I really want to gain some work experience before I start uni.

note: I recently got rejected from my first job I applied to and the reason I was given was that I'm not registered with the jobcentre:frown: they would have given me the job if I was a jobseeker allowance claimant :yikes:
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by DarylDonnes
Protip: I already knew that.

Protip: My post stated that I don't think it is right to claim additional benefits.

Protip: Just because free money is available, it doesn't mean you have to take it.


What do you mean by additional benefits? The op isn't claiming any benefits currently.

There are plenty of people abusing the benefit system who are deserving of criticism, but this thread is about a person who is exactly the person that the system is intended to help.

There is absolutely nothing untoward about the OP considering claiming JSA, she is extremely willing and keen to work, but unfortunately currently will not earn enough to live on. This is exactly what the system is designed for, so i don''t understand your disgruntlement and can only presume that you hold the same opinion of everyone who claims benefits.
Reply 19
Original post by DarylDonnes
Protip: I already knew that.

Protip: My post stated that I don't think it is right to claim additional benefits.

Protip: Just because free money is available, it doesn't mean you have to take it.


Option 1: Work zero hours and claim the full amount of JSA

Option 2: Work ten hours to earn 10 hours' pay, and receive a small top up from the state.

Which option would you prefer someone to be doing? As has been explained, the amount that you can claim is adjusted to take into account anything that you earn. If you earn the same as JSA in your 10 hours then you receive nothing.

How can you possibly think it's better to encourage people to work zero hours, rather than encourage them to take any employment possible, even if it's for **** hours and money?

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