Jobseeker's Allowance cut in half ??

aproctor · 8 Dec 2009 at 22:52

arknor said:
my sister gets i believe it to be around 400quid a month in housing benefits she is a tenant of a private landlord and her rent is around 480 she makes up the extra
she has it tough though single mum with 4 kids , one has parkinsons disease.

The amount she gets depends on how long she has lived in the property, assuming she has lived there less than a couple of years i imagine she will be on LHA.

with 4 kids i imagine she is entitled to a 3 bed rate, possibly 4.

If she lives in a 2 bed, she will only get up to the 2 bed rate.

In newcastle a 3 bed seems to be eligible for around £550 pcm (can change monthly).

The number of rooms and therefore maximum housing benefit is dictated by

One Bedroom for:

Every adult couple

Any other adult aged 16 or over

Any two children of the same sex under 16

Any two children regardless of sex under 10

Any other child

aproctor · 8 Dec 2009 at 22:54

Geckovich said:
Yep, when I had to sign on for a short period I decided to do some voluntary work (filled the void on the CV and kept me busy). As soon as I mentioned it I was told I was no longer able to claim as I was technically employed.

During this same period (different fortnight) I went to Dublin for 2 days for a job interview. When I returned home I was told that I had to be signed off, then sign back on again as I'd been on holiday abroad.

They're a strange bunch.

That sounds more like you didn't keep them in the loop.

But yes they can be, but not for the reasons above.

memphisto · 8 Dec 2009 at 23:00

arknor said:
my sister gets i believe it to be around 400quid a month in housing benefits she is a tenant of a private landlord and her rent is around 480 she makes up the extra
she has it tough though single mum with 4 kids , one has parkinsons disease.

wheres the father ? and if there isnt one. Then no she doesn't have it tough she has it free and easy.

try having 4 kids and working that's tough having 4 kids and sitting on benefits is a walk in the park.

and for everyone else complaining get a job stop being a scum sucking leech and pay yer way rather than me and the other however many private workers paying for you to sit on yer arse*

* if you are disabled and unable to work exceptions to be made, if yer a lazy layabout scumbag who simply can neither be arsed to get a job or doesnt want to then receive nothing and live on nothing.

Dr Jack · 8 Dec 2009 at 23:06

GothicGhost said:
So as far as i see there no point doing the odd days work cause u just get bent over the table for it lol

I know. Stupid, isn't it? It's better than it used to be, you used to have to sign off, and then sign on again, messing up all your housing benefit and get the delays and everything. I once got two days work and ended up worse off than if I'd stayed home and watched daytime TV

Mark A · 8 Dec 2009 at 23:20

seek said:
No, I'm well aware of what it is. Around the £60 per week mark.

Fine for people in between jobs.

Disgusting for those who live with their parents and claim it long-term (6 months +), and spend it on DVD's, Games and beer/smokes.

My brother has just started doing this and its really doing my head in. He pays my Mum no money at all and hasn't for a long time. Gets free food and gets to sit at home all day playing on his Xbox. He spends all his JSA on takeaways and weed and pays none to my Mum.

I have to get up for work every day and give my Mum £50 to live there.

They should actually make people go for interviews or they don't get the cash.

Zenduri · 8 Dec 2009 at 23:25

I know im going to get lynched for saying this but.....

THERE IS WORK OUT THERE!

It ISNT overly hard to get A job, it IS overly hard to get a DECENT job!
Fact is most people unemployed could get a job, any job even if its cleaning offices, factory work, call centre but i guess this only applies to those with no dependants and they would be better off than on JSA.

Its just a case of people saying "I dont want to clean for a job" "i dont want to work in a food factory". There are jobs just a lot of people are too snobby to take the crap minimum wage- £6 hr jobs.

Jobs ive had over the years

Age 17 onwards

Flower Factory (dirty cold job)
Landscaping (dirty cold job)
Turkey catching (dirty job (was only for 3 weeks) )
Bar work (local pub)
Bar work (Bar/Nightclub )
Newsagents (VERY boring job)
Callcentre (Capital one, boring job)
Callcentre (Selling Talk Talk, boring horrible job)
RBS Fraud claims (interesting but got laid off)
E.ON Data management/admin and data flow correction (current job and loving it)

Took me just 49 hours between leaving RBS and finding/having interview/being offered the job for E.on

To anyone who knows someone fiddling the system.. RAT ON THEM! I would wihtout a seconds thought! Why should I pay for someone cheating the system

Amp34 · 8 Dec 2009 at 23:38

Mark A said:
My brother has just started doing this and its really doing my head in. He pays my Mum no money at all and hasn't for a long time. Gets free food and gets to sit at home all day playing on his Xbox. He spends all his JSA on takeaways and weed and pays none to my Mum.

I have to get up for work every day and give my Mum £50 to live there.

They should actually make people go for interviews or they don't get the cash.

What fot me with JSA was how much you had to "do" to keep getting it. For me it was to go and register with one Agency when I signed on and then show I had done two things each week, which could be walking into a shop and asking if they have jobs available. Now I couldn't find a reasonable job after sending dozens of CV's out and almost full time job hunting, no wonder so many people can't "find" a job...

V4NT0M · 8 Dec 2009 at 23:39

Not sure if it's been said yet but iirc if you work <16 hours in a week they deduct all but £5 of it from your JSA.

EffBee · 9 Dec 2009 at 00:31

HybridX said:
I know im going to get lynched for saying this but.....

THERE IS WORK OUT THERE!

It ISNT overly hard to get A job, it IS overly hard to get a DECENT job!
Fact is most people unemployed could get a job, any job even if its cleaning offices, factory work, call centre but i guess this only applies to those with no dependants and they would be better off than on JSA.

Its just a case of people saying "I dont want to clean for a job" "i dont want to work in a food factory". There are jobs just a lot of people are too snobby to take the crap minimum wage- £6 hr jobs.

Jobs ive had over the years

Age 17 onwards

Flower Factory (dirty cold job)
Landscaping (dirty cold job)
Turkey catching (dirty job (was only for 3 weeks) )
Bar work (local pub)
Bar work (Bar/Nightclub )
Newsagents (VERY boring job)
Callcentre (Capital one, boring job)
Callcentre (Selling Talk Talk, boring horrible job)
RBS Fraud claims (interesting but got laid off)
E.ON Data management/admin and data flow correction (current job and loving it)

Took me just 49 hours between leaving RBS and finding/having interview/being offered the job for E.on

To anyone who knows someone fiddling the system.. RAT ON THEM! I would wihtout a seconds thought! Why should I pay for someone cheating the system

It's probably more of a case of not wanting to lose their home, end up on the street with their wife and kids just to prove what fine upstanding fellows they are to people who think everyone drawing benefit is a student living with their mum at home

Indy500 · 9 Dec 2009 at 00:34

Or just maybe the population density vs job count is a rather high ratio...

Gamer_T · 9 Dec 2009 at 00:41

My contract ended recently, I was just doing data entry work as a temp and they couldn't take me on full time.

So recently I've had to start claiming JSA. I've got to attend a one hour group Jobsearch session tomorrow at my local Jobcentre and I really think this is going to suck. Has anyone here had to do this aswell?

person · 9 Dec 2009 at 00:50

EffBee said:
It's probably more of a case of not wanting to lose their home, end up on the street with their wife and kids just to prove what fine upstanding fellows they are to people who think everyone drawing benefit is a student living with their mum at home

I am a student but I don't " live at home " I have to live in my own place cos for one my mum doesn't have her own home and as for drawing benefit I did state in an earlier post that I don't get any because if your a full time student you can't. I am not to proud to do anything and right now would take any part time job I could get just need to get a break from someone ive applied to.

Indy500 · 9 Dec 2009 at 01:11

person said:
I am a student but I don't " live at home " I have to live in my own place cos for one my mum doesn't have her own home and as for drawing benefit I did state in an earlier post that I don't get any because if your a full time student you can't. I am not to proud to do anything and right now would take any part time job I could get just need to get a break from someone ive applied to.

Join the club. I suppose there's always the interest-free overdraft if nothing comes up before the holidays...

yoyo50 · 9 Dec 2009 at 01:13

Gamer_T said:
My contract ended recently, I was just doing data entry work as a temp and they couldn't take me on full time.

So recently I've had to start claiming JSA. I've got to attend a one hour group Jobsearch session tomorrow at my local Jobcentre and I really think this is going to suck. Has anyone here had to do this aswell?

Im not sure if its the same thing but i was doing agency work and my "contract" ended and had to sign on.

I had a group thing to, was just giving details of jobs and local agency's.
Didn't last to long tho bout 30mins.

Gamer_T · 9 Dec 2009 at 01:15

yoyo50 said:
Im not sure if its the same thing but i was doing agency work and my "contract" ended and had to sign on.

I had a group thing to, was just giving details of jobs and local agency's.
Didn't last to long tho bout 30mins.

Ah, not bad then. I just didn't want to get thrown in to one of there pointless training schemes or something like that!

2StepSteve · 9 Dec 2009 at 01:16

I know you are not ment to be on it for the long term but the amount of money JSA provides is a total joke, I am not sure how anyone is supposed to survive on it.

swanseajack · 9 Dec 2009 at 01:18

Don't get me started on these muppets, I used to sign on at 1:10pm every two Fridays, that was fine, two weeks ago they changed it to 10:30am, only problem is the first bus into the city is at 10:20 and it takes around 20 mins on a good day to get into the city.

They told me I should walk, great considering I suffer from Sciatica, which is on my record. Their solution is either I make it on time or I lose my JSA.

The city is 3 miles away.

yoyo50 · 9 Dec 2009 at 01:21

Yea they treat u like crap, if u turn up 5mins late they say come back another day and mess u around, if u turn up 10 mins early they say wait outside

Indy500 · 9 Dec 2009 at 01:22

2StepSteve said:
I know you are not ment to be on it for the long term but the amount of money JSA provides is a total joke, I am not sure how anyone is supposed to survive on it.

You're not. Take this example:

24 year old single person. £50.95 a week JSA, LHA £85 a week (for an outer London region). Lets say their rent actually totals £100 a week including utility bills (which isn't unusual if you want something more than a bare box room). This shortfall has to come out of the JSA, leaving £35.95 a week for everything else.

I have my doubts about the naysayers' ability to live on that much...

Rroff · 9 Dec 2009 at 01:23

HybridX said:
I know im going to get lynched for saying this but.....

THERE IS WORK OUT THERE!

It ISNT overly hard to get A job, it IS overly hard to get a DECENT job!
Fact is most people unemployed could get a job, any job even if its cleaning offices, factory work, call centre but i guess this only applies to those with no dependants and they would be better off than on JSA.

Its just a case of people saying "I dont want to clean for a job" "i dont want to work in a food factory". There are jobs just a lot of people are too snobby to take the crap minimum wage- £6 hr jobs.

Jobs ive had over the years

Age 17 onwards

Flower Factory (dirty cold job)
Landscaping (dirty cold job)
Turkey catching (dirty job (was only for 3 weeks) )
Bar work (local pub)
Bar work (Bar/Nightclub )
Newsagents (VERY boring job)
Callcentre (Capital one, boring job)
Callcentre (Selling Talk Talk, boring horrible job)
RBS Fraud claims (interesting but got laid off)
E.ON Data management/admin and data flow correction (current job and loving it)

Took me just 49 hours between leaving RBS and finding/having interview/being offered the job for E.on

To anyone who knows someone fiddling the system.. RAT ON THEM! I would wihtout a seconds thought! Why should I pay for someone cheating the system

I don't think you can generalise like that... I moved to one place and job fell through shortly after

leaving me stuck on JSA/HB trying to find another job and I really made an honest effort, infact I had more interviews than I could fit in - but I couldn't get a job mostly due to 2 factors:

However much I tried to dumb down my CV (and despite previous warehouse work, etc.) shops, etc. saw me as over qualified and didn't think I'd stick around.

Sheer level of unemployment in the area meant they could cherry pick the exact candidate...

I was fortunate in that I had the opportunity to move to another part of the country with better job opportunities and found work in less than a month after moving... but if I hadn't been able to move I'd probably still be on JSA and not for lack of trying.