Thread: Young grad seeks advice on the cost of life...

Hello everyone, I'm about to finally go out into the big bad world without the shields and protections from the ugly government that students, and myself up till now, enjoy.

Here are my circumstances:

Just finished law school (sorry guys - another leech is on its way)
Will be looking for a solicitor job
This will be EXTREMELY difficult to find

hence:
Need to find just about any job in the meantime to keep myself alive.

Will be living alone in my parent's house rent free.



So here's what I was wondering, for the purposes of keeping myself from starving to death, I will be looking for a full time job of pretty much any sort. While I am looking for a job - Would I be entitled to JSA? No savings (overdraft.. student loan) of any sort and will be actively looking for almost any job (though I would like to narrow this down to an office job of some description)

Upon finding a job - let's say a min wage 40 hours/week job, after tax and NI I guess I'd end up with around £700/month, student loans wouldn't be a factor here since I wouldn't be making over 15k/year.

So from then on, would I be liable for council tax living on my own in that house? If so how much? (I believe it is currently £1300 in that area)

What else am I looking at that I'll have to pay to the taxman/other people who want my money.


I hope this is all the information you need and I hope that the community would be able to help me.

Thanks in advance!

You would be eligible for JSA. You are looking for work and if you have not been working while studying and you do not have savings or other income then you should make sure that you claim JSA contributory based and income-based when you apply.

Originally Posted by insyder

You would be eligible for JSA. You are looking for work and if you have not been working while studying and you do not have savings or other income then you should make sure that you claim JSA contributory based and income-based when you apply.

Thanks for the reply insyder.

What is the situation as I described it above then, if I do start working, on council tax liability?

while u are not working and on jsa no c tax payable then if u get a job u will get second adult discount if only u are living in house

Once you are working you will have no automatic entitlement to Council Tax Benefit. As Pompeyfaith said, you will be entitled to a single adult rebate if you live alone. I think it's 25% off the annual amount, but don't take my word for it.

You can also make a claim for Council Tax Benefit based on low income (you don't actually have to be on JSA). Whether you get any benefit or not will, of course, depend on how much you are paid. To find out more about this, speak to your local council. They will have an enquiry phone line and perhaps an office you can visit to discuss the matter.

my sister was on a low wage when she single, i think she got around £110 a week. She was some what lucky and had a council property which was £38 rent a week and i think her tax was about £18 a week. She received no discounts at all other than single persons 25% discount on ct. Local council worked it out roughly as follows:-

amount if unemployed = I think this is about £45 a week
disregard first £10 over this amount so they did not take account of first £55 of her wages.

As she received £55 a week over and above this amount this is what they considered when working out that she was entitled to no discount. But when you consider that her rent and ct is about £56 a week, she would have been just as well off not working, which does not seem fair.

Also there are basic bills like food, gas, electricity. Extras could include telephone, sky, social life lol! Could you budget if you were to go accidently overdran and had to pay a £35 charge back one month?

Welcome to real life

Thanks for the replies; guess I'll have to see what I can do...

Woohoo!! Life!!