Is it worth working less than 16 hours on JSA?

Roles that are advertised for 8 hours etc are usually a lot more, it's just 8 hours is the minimum amount of work they can give you

You only get to keep the first £5 unless you're disabled, part of a couple or have a child. You may find that by the time you've deducted travelling costs, you're worse off.

But it does mean less gaps on your CV and your part time job could lead to a full time job.

Hi, me again. I swear this will (hopefully) be the last question I ask in this forum for a while...

While applying for jobs, I'm seeing a lot of them that are for very few hours - usually between 4-8. I know that you can work for less than 16 hours and still claim JSA, but that the Job Centre deducts the wages you earn from your JSA income, so I'm trying to determine whether it's worth me working such a job while still signing on.

Specifically, I'm wondering whether there are any disadvantages to doing so - stuff like tax disadvantages, where, for example, the council tax my parents end up paying pay might be higher than it would be if I wasn't working that particular job. Does anyone know anything about this?

Also, I know there's a small buffer, like a much smaller version of the Personal Allowance for tax, that you're entitled to earn without the Job Centre deducting anything from it, but I can't find any current information on what that figure is - older forum threads state it's £5, and I wanted to confirm whether it's still at that.

Thanks in advance!

Council tax shouldn't change, its a set amount per year based on where you live (council area) and what band the property is. Unless the household will go from one worker to two workers, then you have nothing to worry about

I thought about that, but do you find that's regularly the case? I'd hate to sign off and find that a company was only offering the advertised hours.

Yeah, mostly. Depends what company it is obviously, but most of the relatively well-known ones will have a high demand for staff. If they specify when the hours will be i.e a weekend shift then it's more likely it'll be the said hours but if they're vague then they'll most likely offer you more. Also got to take into consideration other staff booking time off, going on holiday, calling in sick etc.