where do i stand? no money coming in and i cant claim???

[fletcherGTO]

well i have been self employed for the last 4 years, but over the last year my business has been slowly getting worse and worse, untill its finally got to the point that its making next to nothing!

 

anyway me and my partner live in private rented house, but with me having pretty much no income (£77 a month at the moment) we are strugeling, ive been looking and applying for jobs over the last months but no luck yet.. anyway i found out that i could apply for job seekers allowence becuase im workin less than 16 hours per week.

 

so i went through all the relevant process, phone interview etc, and had to go to the job centre today for a face to face meeting to sort out my claim and show proof and ID etc.

 

after around 15 mins i was told i cant claim, being self employed i pay class 2 national insurance, and to claim you need to pay class 1!

 

so i asked what the hell thats all about, but she said basically all they can do is contribute to my national insurance! £2.40 a week!

 

i cant believe this... ive worked since i left school, was employed for 4 years, and self employed for 4 years, and cant claim a single penny to help me? she said i could claim income bassed JSA BUT my partner works full time so im not qualified to apply!! what the hell?

 

i really dont understand it? ive worked and paid in to the system all my working life, and now that im in need of a bit of help i cant get nothing?

this country is a complete joke, and needless to say im majorly ****ed off!

 

what can do? im literally going to run out of money over the next week or 2! im behind on my council tax, and really cant miss a rent payment! :-x:-x:-x:-x:-x

[shoegirl]

Hi FletcherGTO,

I've been in a very similar situation as you since the "crash"( Thanks banks). Have you tried going down the Working Tax Credit path. You won't get as much as you would on JSA. I get £51 a week. It is based on your earnings ( or lack of). There is a tax credit working out bit on the MoneySavingExpert.com that should tell you what you can claim for. I think you can get help with rent and council tax ( though it didn't help me through the technicality of renting a house from a friends parents, its not like its my parents ) . Anyway, have a look.

Click on the Income/Family tab at the top and then on the "benefits check up" link.

good luck:)

[privatehudson]

The government says that a person or couple needs a certain amount of income to live on. The reason why you probably won’t qualify for income based JSA is because if your partner is working full time the chances are that your household will have an income over and above what they believe you need to live on as a couple. As an individual, even if you have paid into the system they will still investigate whether you already have an existing income and match that against the amount you supposedly need to live on (a certain amount is discounted but not much). Obviously there could be some considerable debate as to whether the limits they set are fair but there clearly has to be some limit otherwise anyone could claim.

 

The fact that you’ve worked since leaving school is only partly relevant since they only look at the last 2-3 tax years. Even if you’ve paid into the system for 30 years it would make no difference as the other twenty odd years worth have, to all intents and purposes long since been spent (although it counts towards the state pension). Since you were self employed during the period they will look at then sadly you probably won’t have paid the right class of NI. Self employed people usually pay class 2, employed people usually class 1, its class 1 you usually need to have paid to qualify for contributions based JSA.

 

It might seem unfair that class 2 doesn't count but class 2 is a flat rate of £2.40 a week. As an employee I pay roughly 10 times that amount. Although s/e people are also taxed on their annual taxable profits under Class 4 as well it is unreasonable to presume that paying what is potentially considerably less contributions should not come with a downside as well.

 

However Jobseekers Allowance is not the final word in benefits. You might want to investigate Tax Credits and also Housing/Council Tax benefit. Any JSA award is not designed to cover your housing costs anyway, and the limits/requirements they set is not necessarily going to be the same. Speak to your local authority asap as they may be able to advise you about that.

Edited February 2, 2010 by privatehudson