Jobseekers Allowance Query

[diane9994]

Hi

 

I have recently applied for jobseekers, the first time in my life I have ever claimed any sort of benefit.

 

I have been told I have not paid enough in NI to qualify ????!!!

The 2 tax years they are using to access my claim are

2011 I earned £20115.00 and paid £1849.00 in NI

2012 I earned £38494.00 and paid £3767.92 in NI

 

I cannot believe I have not paid enough NI, can you. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

[RebeccaPidgeon]

Hi

 

I have recently applied for jobseekers, the first time in my life I have ever claimed any sort of benefit.

 

I have been told I have not paid enough in NI to qualify ????!!!

The 2 tax years they are using to access my claim are

2011 I earned £20115.00 and paid £1849.00 in NI

2012 I earned £38494.00 and paid £3767.92 in NI

 

I cannot believe I have not paid enough NI, can you. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

In simple terms, there are two types of benefit for Job Seekers.... the first is based on National Insurance Contributions, and the second is not.

 

There should be no problem... and provided that you dont exceed the savings limits, you should receive confirmation of the amount you will get in due course.

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I'll move your thread to the benefits forum and leave you a redirect from here. Rebecca's given you some good information and other people may be able to add to it.

 

My best, HB

[scotgal68]

There are TWO contribution conditions and both need to be satisfied to qualify for JSA. The first is that class 1 contributions have been paid or treated as being paid or credited and must be at least 26 times the LEL (lower earning limits) The second one is that Class 1 contributions have been paid or treated as being paid or credited and must be at least 50 times the LEL for each of the last two complete tax years before the start of the benefit year.

 

LEL = £107 p/w

Did you claim for JSA (IB) at the same time? x

Edited January 18, 2013 by scotgal68

[flumps1976]

It isn't the actual amount of NI that you pay it's the number of contributions you make in each tax year.

I think it is 26 weeks for each year but not 100% certain sorry.

[diane9994]

Hi Thanks for your reply. As I have never done this before I just filled in the forms at the job centre as requested and no one mentioned what the requirements were or that there were 2 types.

 

Does that mean that

one type you have to have paid 26 x LEL ( £107 ) =£2782

type 2 50 x LEL =£5350

this seems an awful lot and a lot of the people there I spoke to ( IE jobless not staff ) have only been earning £12,000 + ??

[diane9994]

Thanks Rebecca, I have had a letter saying that I do not qualify ?? I can't believe it ??

[scotgal68]

You have to have paid enough conts in the two relevant tax years, in your case 2010/11 2011/12. This applies only to the JSA© element. The JSA(IB) is not based on contributions but things like savings, pay in lieu of notice or why you left your job and if you have other income, ie from a partner, can affect entitlement.

You should qualify for JSA(IB) if you meet the conditions. I've not worked in JSA for years so I'm not up to date with

conditions of entitlement x

[id6052]

did you make your claim in 2012 or 2013?

[lancashirebabs]

My husband has just had the same problem. The jobcentre said he was not entitled to contribution based JSA as he had not had enough contributions. We did not believe this so we wrote to HMRC for a breakdown which they sent to us and we sent this to DWP. They totally ignored our correspondence asking them where they got their information regarding NI contributions and sent them the report from HMRC. Only by getting in touch with our local MP who wrote to them on my husbands behalf did we get a reply to our queries. On receiving correspondence from our MP they finally wrote back to us (nearly 12 months later). They apologised that they had made an error when processing our claim(what a suprise), but they said they would not pay him JSA because failed to continue signing on. The reason he did not continue signing on was that they said we was not entitled to JSA. It is worth checking with HMRC about your NI contributions because the DWP do not know what they are actually doing. They have since sent my husband a 17 page claim form to complete for a very small sum for the 3 weeks that was signing on. He is refusing to send this back to them as it is a waste of taxpayers and our resources. What a shambles for a government department. My husband has been working since he was 15, now 62 and them saying he has not paid enough contributions!

[san_d]

The Jobcentre can make and does make mistakes when calculating entitlements. If you make a complaint make sure you send it to the Benefit Centre, not the Jobcentre. I believe the BC's have the last word over entitlements.

[lancashirebabs]

We sent all our correspondence to DWP in Birmingham not the local job centre as they have really bad record in making errors. They made an error on my daughters Housing Benefit some time ago when she was going through a bad time and are making her pay back £1,500, they even admited it was their fault in miscalculating it but said she still had to repay it even though she appealed in writing. She is not receiving housing benefit now only child tax credits and statutory maternity pay until she goes back to work next month. She is really struggling financially and paying this back each month is making matters worse. I believe if they make the error then you should not have to pay this back. I hear the same thing over and over again about them making these errors and forcing you to repay the money.