Jobseekers Allowance

[danchip]

My sister in law currently works 24hours per week and has 2 young children who are in childcare when she works, once she has paid childcare she is left with about £20 per week, she also has to pay taxis to get to work and therefore is left with about £10 per week! Her husband is in a well paid job but all of his pay goes on bills etc so they are left with very little every month to live on! She has been looking for bar work etc to do on an evening when she wont need childcare!

She went to the local jobcentre to enquire about being entitled to JSA if she left her job until she found some bar work but was told she wouldn't be eligible for JSA and she would have to go before an appeal panel who wouldn't look favourably on someone leaving paid employment even if she was left with such a litle amount!

Is this correct, how likely would it be that a appeals panel would find in her favour?

[bednobs]

of course it's right - she needs to look for a job while she's still doing the one she's doing.

[knowabit]

If she is married, and her husband earns enough to keep them all and pay rent and bills, then she prob wont be entitled to anything. We were in the same situation and they would not help with anything. They just kept telling us that my husband earned over the 'set' amount, whatever that is.. regardless of what our outgoings were.

[friedgreentomato]

Has she applied for tax credits?

[danchip]

She's just had them cut

[friedgreentomato]

Why were they cut?

[danchip]

Because of her husbands wage i believe

[friedgreentomato]

Ah he must be on a fair wage then

[fairycakes69]

But if she's only left with £10 a week after child care and taxi, then it's not really worth working, can't she stop working and look for night time work? They manage on her husbands wage since her £10 isn't going to make any difference.

[lcg]

why does she have to take taxis to work? she could walk/cycle/bus/train like everyone else? or just wait until she can get another job. i would be piss poor if the govt gave everyone a handout because they fancy having a taxi to go to work in - they look at what you have got coming in, not going out as income!!!! if she gives her job up, then she will not be able to claim anything for 26 weeks at all, and if her hubby earns that much, then none at all. i think they need to start budgeting a little better.....oh. and no appeal panel will find in her favour.

[factor-fiction]

Contribution based JSA may be available if she's made enough NI contributions and that won't be affected by her her husband's income.
She has got more chance of finding another job if she looks while she's working. Employers tend to look less favourably on those who are out of work and have gaps on their CV

[THECORBYLOON]

I doubt the Jobcentre said the claim would go to an appeal panel. What happens when someone leaves employment voluntarily (known as LV) is the claimant is asked to give their reasons. Those details are then passed to a Labour Market Decision Maker who decides if there is a good reason for the LV. If there isn't and it's the first time, the JSA will be sanctioned (stopped) for thirteen weeks. With regard to using taxis, it may be there is some long distance involved and public transport is not available for the start and/or finishing times so taxis may be reasonable. What the Decision Maker will look at is what prompted the decision to leave, did she not know what the travel costs would be when she acceptedvthe job? What efforts did she she make to look for other employment BEFORE leaving the current job and why could she not have stayed in her current job until she found other work. If she is entitled to JSA, it will be paid while the Decision Maker considers the facts. If a sanction decision is given, the benefit will be stopped from the day after JSA was paid last. If she thinks the decision is wrong, she can ask for it to be looked at again and if she appeals and another Decision Maker thinks the decision should not be changed, THEN it goes to an Appeal Tribunal for them to consider.