JOB SEEKERS UNIVERSAL CREDIT

Ernie

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Any guidance please.. :cry: Wife will be laid off in a weeks time :cry: ..
contracted hours are 12..she does on average 16 to 18 hours a week
I am working...we have small amount of savings and very small mortgage

Would she be assessed as stand alone or would my wage be taken in consideration

Thanks in advance for any pointers or advice

Ernie ;)
 
From memory they will take your wages into consideration. She may be able to claim free prescriptions and such like but unless you too are out of work its not much use.

I have a big box of bike 'stuff' if you get stuck money wise.
 
legrandefromage":1oeigwtn said:
From memory they will take your wages into consideration. She may be able to claim free prescriptions and such like but unless you too are out of work its not much use.

I have a big box of bike 'stuff' if you get stuck money wise.

:D aww cheers LGF, All my steeds are all made up..thank you very much for the very kind gesture :D

Ernie ;)
 
If you live as a couple then you will have to claim as a couple and they will go by the combined household income I'm afraid. Plenty of details online to help, and confuse :LOL:

Mark
 
Re:

I went to my local citizens advice a couple of times for different things (one of them job / workers rights related) a d they were incredibly helpful and actually explained things in English rather than the strange language they use on government paperwork and throughout gov.uk when all you want is a clear, concise answer.

Worth a chat if nothing else.
 
They will make you sign up on the "universal jobmatch" website, which has job listings.

They'll also nag you to use it as a place to log all your "work search activity", and they'll nag you to tick a permissions box so that they can read it. They do this so they can catch you out on small things.

For example the agreement they make you sign might say you must ask in a shop for a job once a day. If your record says that you didn't do it on monday, but you made up for it on tuesday by asking two shops, they can still say you haven't met your agreement, and take the money off you.

But you don't have to use the website to make these records, and you don't have to give them permission to read your account on that site either. So I strongly recommend you don't.

Instead keep everything recorded in word documents on your own computer, and print it out on the afternoon before you have the job centre appointment. Put it in a big ring binder.

This gives you two advantages. The first is no "Job Centre Adviser" wants to read 14 pages (one page a day over a normal two week appointment cycle). So they won't start combing through it looking for a technicality to sanction you, because they can't be bothered.

The second is it gives you the chance to go back and edit it, without them knowing. So if at the end of the week you've got 34 hours worth looking, you can change how long something took to make it the full 35. Or if you forgot to write about asking a shop for work on wednesday, and you remember on thursday, you can go back and write that you did. Paper records let you do this, their website doesn't.

They don't care if you applied for a hundred jobs that week, if they count the hours and get to 34 hours and 59 minutes they'll still cut your month's money to 0.

I also strongly recommend being ten minutes early. After you've gone and got yourself ticked off the register, go to whoever your appointment is with and say hello even if they're busy with someone else. Their favourite trick is to leave you waiting half an hour past your appointment time, sitting on the waiting couch, and then notice you and say "oh you're late". It's all to cut your money.

There's lots of stuff job centres can do. They can pay for clothes for interviews, training courses, bus fares to stuff they send you on etc. But they have a policy of never mentioning this until you ask them. So be bold.
 
legrandefromage":1e8k1d17 said:
From memory they will take your wages into consideration. She may be able to claim free prescriptions and such like but unless you too are out of work its not much use.

I have a big box of bike 'stuff' if you get stuck money wise.

Way cool.
 
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