Jobseeker’s Allowance

Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) is the main benefit available to those who are unemployed or working only part-time and seeking work. JSA takes two forms:

• Contribution-based JSA is payable for a maximum period of approximately six months to those who satisfy the National Insurance contributions criteria and other qualifying conditions (see below) — the amount paid could be affected by any part-time earnings or occupational pension you might be getting, although income or savings do not usually affect how much you get;

• Income-based JSA is payable to those who do not qualify for contribution-based JSA, or whose eligibility has expired, or who cannot manage on their contribution-based JSA alone. The amount paid is dependent on the claimant’s income and savings.

Who can get it?

To qualify for either contribution-based JSA or income-based JSA, you must satisfy all of the conditions below. You must:

• be unemployed or working less than 16 hours a week on average (unless you are in one of the “excepted groups”, which include certain carers and trainees, volunteers and people living in residential care) — and if you are claiming income-based JSA and you have a partner, s/he must be working no more than 24 hours a week on average;

• be available for work;

• have gone to a JSA interview and entered into a Jobseeker’s Agreement (see page 31);

• be actively seeking employment;

• be capable of work — if you are too ill to work you should claim a sickness or disability benefit instead (see Chapter 3);

• be aged over 18 but under the State Pension age — currently 65 for men (but rising from 60 to 65 for women by November 2018, and to 66 for both men and women by October 2020);

• not be in education (although there are some exceptions for part-time students); and

• live in the UK.

In addition, you must satisfy the specific eligibility conditions for either contribution or income-based JSA.

Contribution-based JSA

To qualify for contribution-based JSA, you must also have paid enough National Insurance contributions in the last two years, contributions by the self-employed do not generally count. You must have:

• paid Class 1 National Insurance contributions on earnings equal to at least 25 times the lower earnings limit (LEL — see page 7) in at least one of the relevant contribution years (see below); and

• paid, or been credited with, Class 1 contributions on earnings equal to at least 50 times the LEL in each of the relevant contribution years.

The relevant contribution years are the two complete tax years (6 April to 5 April) immediately before the start of the calendar year in which your job-seeking period begins. For example, if you are claiming JSA for the first time during 2014, your relevant contribution years would be 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Your P60 — the form you receive at the end of each tax year setting out the amount of tax and National Insurance you have paid — should help you work out whether you satisfy the contribution conditions.

How much can you get?

The weekly rates of contribution-based JSA are £57.35 if you are under 25 and £72.40 if you are 25 or over. Contribution-based JSA is paid for up to approximately six months, after which you will be obliged to transfer to income-based JSA (see below).

There are no additional payments for a partner or children. If you cannot live on contribution-based JSA, you may be able to top up what you get with income-based JSA — as long as you satisfy the means test (see below).

If you have a partner and/or children, you may have a choice of which benefits to claim. For example, you could seek to top up your contribution-based JSA by claiming income-based JSA as well, or your partner could claim either Income Support (see page 23, or income-based JSA (see page 30).

If you have any earnings from a part-time job which involves working for fewer than 16 hours a week, the first £5.00 of your weekly earnings (or more for certain groups of workers including share fishermen, part-time firefighters and reservists) will be disregarded.

Above that amount, your earnings will be taken into account and your benefit will be reduced penny for penny. Income of more than £50 a week from an occupational or personal pension will also be taken into account.

Income-based JSA

You can claim income-based JSA if you do not qualify for contribution-based JSA because:

• you do not satisfy the National Insurance contributions criteria (see page 29);

• your entitlement to contribution-based JSA has expired because you have been receiving it for the maximum six months; or

• you cannot manage on the amount of contribution-based JSA to which you are entitled.

If you are unemployed and 16- or 17-years-old, you may receive income-based JSA in special circumstances (for example, if you have to live away from your parents’ home, have responsibility for a child, or will face extreme hardship if you don’t receive income-based JSA).

How much can you get?

Income-based JSA is means-tested, so the amount you can get is based on an assessment of the needs and income of you and other members of your family. There is a personal allowance, plus additional premium payments if you have dependents and/or special needs such as a disability. Support for children is provided through Child Tax Credit (see Chapter 2).

Your entitlement is calculated by adding up your personal allowance and any other relevant premium payments (see Chapter 8) and comparing this with your earnings and any other income. Your benefit will be reduced if a non-dependent adult aged under 25 is living as part of your household and receiving contribution-based JSA.

You cannot get income-based JSA if you have capital/savings over £16,000. Savings below £6,000 are ignored, but savings between £6,000 and £16,000 are treated as providing £1 a week of income for each £250 or part thereof, and benefit is reduced accordingly.

Housing costs will also be paid where appropriate. If you receive income-based JSA and you are a social housing tenant, you should also qualify for the maximum Housing Benefit (see Chapter 6), subject to any deductions for non-dependent adults living with you. You are also likely to be eligible for help with NHS costs, free school meals and similar benefits.

The JSA personal allowance is taxable, but any premiums payable above this are not taxable.

How to claim

You should claim JSA on the first day that you are out of work. You cannot get benefit for any day before you claim other than in exceptional circumstances — for example, if you have been given wrong advice. However, you cannot simply argue that you didn’t know about the benefit.

Furthermore, from April 2014, you cannot get either contribution-based JSA or income-based JSA for the first seven days that you are out of work. These “waiting days” start from the day you first make your claim. Claims can be made online at: https://www.dwpe-services.direct.gov.uk/portal/page/portal/jsaol/lp; or at your local Jobcentre, where you will need to make an appointment to see a personal adviser. You will need your P45 (the “employee leaving” form) and your National Insurance number. You will also need to provide proof of identity (for example, a birth or marriage certificate or a passport).

You can make a “rapid reclaim” if you’ve had JSA in the last 182 days (approximately six months).

Unemployed couples who are both over the age of 18 but under the state retirement age and without dependent children have to make a joint claim for income-based JSA. The JSA application process is the same as that described above, but each partner will be required to sign the claim form, have a jobseeker’s interview, sign a jobseeker’s agreement, attend the Jobcentre regularly and will have access to training and employment programmes.

The partners have to decide which of them will receive the JSA. And if one of the partners breaks JSA rules, the other will receive a JSA payment at the single rate only.

You can ask for any decision about your JSA to be reviewed at any time, and you can appeal the decision about your JSA if you’re unhappy with it. The DWP appeal form can be accessed from the website at: www.direct.gov.uk

Jobseeker’s Agreement

To complete your claim you have to go to an interview at your local Jobcentre Plus. At your interview with the adviser, a Jobseeker’s Agreement will be drawn up and you will be expected to sign it. The agreement will include information on the type of work you are looking for, the hours you are available for work and the steps you will take to find a job.

You will normally have a review meeting every two weeks to “show evidence that you have done everything that you could to look for work”. Chancellor George Osborne has announced that this will change to weekly visits with an in-depth progress review every three months. This is one of a series of reforms that are due to be phased in between April 2014 and April 2015 (see page 5).

If you don’t attend your interview or your review meetings this will delay your JSA payment and may mean you won’t get any JSA at all.

If you are 16 or 17, the agreement will cover training issues as well as work and will cover actions you are taking to seek work and training.

Jobseeker’s directions and sanctions

There have been a number of changes to the rules about the conditions you have to meet in order to remain entitled to JSA and the penalties that can be imposed if you do not meet those conditions. These have been introduced in preparation for Universal Credit (see Chapter 1) and further changes are in the pipeline and due to be phased in between April 2014 and April 2015 (see page 5).

A new JSA sanction regime was introduced on 22 October 2012. If you are claiming JSA, you may have a sanction applied in a number of different circumstances. You might be sanctioned if you:

• left your job voluntarily, lost your job due to misconduct or you fail to apply for or accept a job;

• fail to show that you are available for work and actively seeking work;

• fail to attend a compulsory training or employment scheme;

• fail to carry out a direction from a Jobcentre Plus (JCP) personal adviser.

In certain circumstances, your JSA may be disallowed entirely — for example, if you are found not to be actively seeking work. This brings your JSA claim to an end and you will have to make another claim in order to requalify for JSA.

How much will a sanction be and how long will it last?

The new sanction regime has three levels of sanctions which last for set periods of time depending on what you may have failed to do.

If you are single the amount of a sanction will be 100% of your JSA for the period for which the sanction applies.

If you are part of a joint claim couple and you have both failed to comply, the sanction will be 100% of your couple rate of JSA.

If you are part of a couple but only one of you has failed to comply, then the sanction will reduce the couple rate of JSA to the single person rate (so the member of the couple who has not failed to comply will receive their appropriate personal rate).

Lower level

The lower level of sanction applies if you fail to comply with requirements that will improve your chances of finding or preparing for work. This includes things like:

• losing a place on a training scheme through misconduct;

• failing to attend or giving up a place on a training scheme;

• failing to attend an interview at Jobcentre Plus;

• failing to carry out a jobseeker’s direction as part of your jobseeker’s agreement.

A lower level sanction will lead to you losing JSA for a fixed period of four weeks for the first failure, followed by 13 weeks for subsequent failures (within 52 weeks of the last failure).

Intermediate level

There is also an intermediate level of sanctions, which will apply if you reclaim JSA after a previous JSA award has been disallowed following a finding that you (or your joint-claim partner) are not available for work or not actively seeking work. If you make another claim for JSA, it will only be allowed once you show that you (or your joint-claim partner) are now available for and actively seeking work. However, an intermediate sanction may still be applied to your new JSA claim after a disallowance.

The sanction will be four weeks for a first failure, rising to 13 weeks for a second or subsequent failures (within 52 weeks of the last failure). The sanction will be applied following the period of disallowance for not actively seeking employment or not being available for work.

Higher level

A higher level sanction (for example, for leaving a job voluntarily, or through misconduct, or failing to take up a job or mandatory work activity) will lead to you losing all your JSA for a fixed period of:

• 13 weeks for a first failure;

• 26 weeks for a second failure;

• 156 weeks for a third and subsequent failure (within 52 weeks of the last failure).

‘Good reason’ why a sanction should not be applied

A sanction will not be applied if you can show that you had good reason for your action that led to a sanction being considered. Good reason is not defined in legislation, but will depend on your circumstances. The guidance for decision-makers suggests that the following factors should be taken into account when deciding whether a claimant has good reason for their actions:

• if you are a victim of domestic violence you can be treated as available for and actively seeking work for up to 13 weeks. Even after that 13-week period a fear of domestic violence may mean you have good reason for refusing or leaving employment;

• if you have a mental health condition or disorder, or if you are homeless;

• if you are a victim of bullying or harassment at work, or you left your job because you were a whistleblower.

People with disabilities and carers

If you have a disability or are a carer, you will be deemed to have good reason for giving up a job or not accepting a job offer if the travelling time would be unreasonable given your caring responsibilities or your health. In the first 13 weeks of your JSA claim you would have good reason for not accepting a job offer if the travelling time to work is more than one hour each way. After 13 weeks you would only have good reason if the travelling time was more than one and a half hours each way.