national insurance contribution based job seekers allowance

[stephen2504]

i lost my job after 8 years and currently recieving contribution based job seekers allowance how long is it before i can get help with my mortgage it seems tho everyone else gets help like income support or income based jobseekers but not me the ive tried talking to the dsa but i just keep getting passed from office to office please help

[sara3]

whilst you're on Contributory JSA you will not be entitled to help with your mortgage. when that runs out (after 6 months) you may be entitled to Income Based JSA (which is means tested), and therefore this link will be of help to you.

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Customers/ WorkingAgeBenefits/Dev_016128.xml.html

[themas]

Whether you can get mortgage help depends on whether you are entitled to a means tested benefit - in your case, income based job seekers allowance.

You may be entitled to this while you are still getting contribution based JSA if the total savings of you & your partner (if any) are less than �16,000 & if the calculations related to your joint incomes & the allowances made (including your mortgage costs) are low enough. If this is the case, then you should start getting mortgage help 13 weeks after your CBJSA started.

If you cannot get any meaningful answer from, JC+ then go to your local CAB, who should be able to do calculations to let you know whether you do have an entitlement.

If your savings are above �16,000 you will not be entitled to IBJSA or mortgage help, even when your 6 months of CBJSA runs out.

[stephen2504]

thanks for your answers ive just phoned job centre and they say i can only claim income based if i have a partner which i havent or when my contributions based runs out i thought the government lowered mortgage help from 39 weeks to 13 weeks for everyone who got made redundant due to economic downturn

[themas]

They don't know what they are talking about!!

Please go to your local CAB to get this sorted. If you meet the conditions you are cetainly entitled to IBJSA - there is no question of having to have a partner.

[rivaldox]

I would love to know what the logic is underlying this. If I have been working for decades and paying NI contributions I must go on income-based JSA and so may not receive any help with mortgage for 6 months. If i have been unemployed for 5 years I will probably get income-based JSA and so be able to get help with mortgage after 13 weeks. (what's with the 13 weeks also?).

No one at the job centre bothered to explain to me that you cannot get mortgage help when claiming income-based JSA - shocked to discover it only several weeks after I submit the form (think it is MI15) for help with mortgage interested.

I did call the processing centre directly (no idea what the distinction is between all the DWP sections but it does make me laugh how the staff assume that they are emanating to the customer). A quite helpful person there told me that there is a form, JSA3 (get it form your jobcentre) which, as I understand it, allows them to consider whether someone on income-based JSA may in fact gets some help with mortgage interest. I don’t know how that works but I will certainly fill in the form and keep you posted. How disgusting that this government presides over a benefits system which is apparently happy to see people lose their homes when they lose their jobs which ultimately must costs the state many times what some help with mortgage interest would have cost. Disgusting - so much for their rubbish slogan 'we are all in this together’.