Unemployment insurance

[Old Greg]

Normally charge £10 a month for my "unemployment insurance for contractors" advice but here it is for free:-

No contract?

1. Phone jobcentre.
2. Complete forms to claim JSA.
3. Sign on once a fortnight.

Pays out £74 or something a week.....

I thought you'd migrated to an 'on the sick' model.

[northernladuk]

Normally charge £10 a month for my "unemployment insurance for contractors" advice but here it is for free:-

No contract?

1. Phone jobcentre.
2. Complete forms to claim JSA.
3. Sign on once a fortnight.

Pays out £74 or something a week.....

Erm ...

Question - I work overseas and as such am exempt UK Tax.

Can he even do that?

[uk contractor]

Normally charge £10 a month for my "unemployment insurance for contractors" advice but here it is for free:-

No contract?

1. Phone jobcentre.
2. Complete forms to claim JSA.
3. Sign on once a fortnight.

Pays out £74 or something a week.....

Close but no cigar!! nowadays its:

1: Phone DWP get put on hold forever it seems before they can take your call (the call handlers are all based in UK though in either Scotland or NE England).
2: Get palmed off with going to Universal Credit (Plus) online portal & application form....2 hours later after giving them way too much info on your financial history they book an appointment for you to come in to your local jobcentre.
3: You bring in all your original documents usually if its a first claim (passport, driving licence, bank statements etc etc).
4: The advisor will then (if your eligible) send your claim to someone who will look at it in greater detail & approve or decline.
5: Then if your lucky they book you in for your regular 2 fortnightly appointments to prove your looking for work....all for the massive sum of £317.82 per month. This also takes about 5-6 weeks minimum to process before you get any payment & they will advance you up to £100 to cover this period but will then take it off the 1st payment.

If your a home owner or pay a mortgage usually your not even eligible as they expect you to downsize & liquidate those assets & anything else like cars, holiday homes, 2nd homes, caravans, boats etc etc

You must have less than £6K in cash as well including any savings accounts. If you have any pension schemes or other investment vehicles they also want full details on those but usually they will decline your application especially if they are complex.

If your a current ltd company director or partner you must resign & close those companies down otherwise you guessed it your not eligible for anything.

To get on the mortgage interest relief scheme (why many contractors try to claim when they cannot find another contract!) also takes a long time & you will not get anything for the first 9 months of your claim only after 9 months on benefits if eligible will the DWP pay the mortgage interest relief which is only up to £200K anyway.

https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest

Apart from that its straightforward !!! as I have provide less info than you perhaps I can get away with charging only £9.99 a month … plus VAT obviously!


To anyone reading this if you are in the unfortunate position of having to claim do not delay as it takes ages to get through the new system so cutback non essential spending as soon as your out of contract to delay how long you can live on your warchest.

[Old Greg]

Close but no cigar!! nowadays its:

1: Phone DWP get put on hold forever it seems before they can take your call (the call handlers are all based in UK though in either Scotland or NE England).
2: Get palmed off with going to Universal Credit (Plus) online portal & application form....2 hours later after giving them way too much info on your financial history they book an appointment for you to come in to your local jobcentre.
3: You bring in all your original documents usually if its a first claim (passport, driving licence, bank statements etc etc).
4: The advisor will then (if your eligible) send your claim to someone who will look at it in greater detail & approve or decline.
5: Then if your lucky they book you in for your regular 2 fortnightly appointments to prove your looking for work....all for the massive sum of £317.82 per month. This also takes about 5-6 weeks minimum to process before you get any payment & they will advance you up to £100 to cover this period but will then take it off the 1st payment.

If your a home owner or pay a mortgage usually your not even eligible as they expect you to downsize & liquidate those assets & anything else like cars, holiday homes, 2nd homes, caravans, boats etc etc

You must have less than £6K in cash as well including any savings accounts. If you have any pension schemes or other investment vehicles they also want full details on those but usually they will decline your application especially if they are complex.

If your a current ltd company director or partner you must resign & close those companies down otherwise you guessed it your not eligible for anything.

To get on the mortgage interest relief scheme (why many contractors try to claim when they cannot find another contract!) also takes a long time & you will not get anything for the first 9 months of your claim only after 9 months on benefits if eligible will the DWP pay the mortgage interest relief which is only up to £200K anyway.

https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest

Apart from that its straightforward !!! as I have provide less info than you perhaps I can get away with charging only £9.99 a month … plus VAT obviously!


To anyone reading this if you are in the unfortunate position of having to claim do not delay as it takes ages to get through the new system so cutback non essential spending as soon as your out of contract to delay how long you can live on your warchest.

Boats??? Have they no humanity?

[PhiltheGreek]

Boats??? Have they no humanity?

Not the easiest thing to get rid of in a hurry either.

[psychocandy]

Close but no cigar!! nowadays its:

1: Phone DWP get put on hold forever it seems before they can take your call (the call handlers are all based in UK though in either Scotland or NE England).
2: Get palmed off with going to Universal Credit (Plus) online portal & application form....2 hours later after giving them way too much info on your financial history they book an appointment for you to come in to your local jobcentre.
3: You bring in all your original documents usually if its a first claim (passport, driving licence, bank statements etc etc).
4: The advisor will then (if your eligible) send your claim to someone who will look at it in greater detail & approve or decline.
5: Then if your lucky they book you in for your regular 2 fortnightly appointments to prove your looking for work....all for the massive sum of £317.82 per month. This also takes about 5-6 weeks minimum to process before you get any payment & they will advance you up to £100 to cover this period but will then take it off the 1st payment.

If your a home owner or pay a mortgage usually your not even eligible as they expect you to downsize & liquidate those assets & anything else like cars, holiday homes, 2nd homes, caravans, boats etc etc

You must have less than £6K in cash as well including any savings accounts. If you have any pension schemes or other investment vehicles they also want full details on those but usually they will decline your application especially if they are complex. WRONG

If your a current ltd company director or partner you must resign & close those companies down otherwise you guessed it your not eligible for anything. Complete crap I didnt ever do it.

To get on the mortgage interest relief scheme (why many contractors try to claim when they cannot find another contract!) also takes a long time & you will not get anything for the first 9 months of your claim only after 9 months on benefits if eligible will the DWP pay the mortgage interest relief which is only up to £200K anyway.

https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest

Apart from that its straightforward !!! as I have provide less info than you perhaps I can get away with charging only £9.99 a month … plus VAT obviously!


To anyone reading this if you are in the unfortunate position of having to claim do not delay as it takes ages to get through the new system so cutback non essential spending as soon as your out of contract to delay how long you can live on your warchest.

Hmmm

[uk contractor]

Boats??? Have they no humanity?

Yes its called INhumanity!

[uk contractor]

Hmmm

You got away with it then as they are not cross checking databases yet I was told quite clearly when I had to claim a while ago to lose the directorships & shut the companies down pay all the corp tax due before HMRC start cross checking...…….
https://www.gov.uk/self-employment-and-universal-credit
"Everyone claiming Universal Credit needs to report their self-employed earnings at the end of each monthly assessment period. This includes company directors, even those paying themselves by PAYE.
You’ll need to report payments into and out of your business in the assessment period. This includes:

• total amount your business received
• how much your business spent on different types of expenses, such as travel costs, stock, equipment and tools, clothing and office costs
• how much tax and National Insurance you paid
• any money you paid into a pension"

This effectively means you get no money from UC system unless you want to self report this financial data to them. If you knowingly do not tell the whole truth then sooner or later the HMRC will drag you into court. All for £317.82 a month + Mortgage Interest relief up to £200K means its not worth doing for most self employed IT contractors.

[uk contractor]

Not the easiest thing to get rid of in a hurry either.

Sell to the mediterranean people smugglers perhaps…………!!

[PhiltheGreek]

Sell to the mediterranean people smugglers perhaps…………!!

I was hoping for an 'illiquid asset' joke, but it seems that would have been too much to ask.