Claim Job Seeker's Allowance between contracts

[BA to the Stars]

You work for the umbrella company not the client or the agency. Are they going to make you redundant then re-employ you when the renewal commences in January?

Some umbrella's deduct a certain amount of the funds which they collect to build up as holiday pay, e.g. if your contract is for £200 per day i.e. £1,000 per week, the brolly may hold back say 10% as holiday pay and then pay this to you when you are not submitting timesheets . Are they paying you this?

As HAB has said - keep a low profile, do you really want to get on their radar for the sake of £128 which may well be rejected anyway.

[XperTest]

Just so I understand correctly kingcook, is your original contract end date the 18th of December or the end of December?

[kingcook]

You work for the umbrella company not the client or the agency. Are they going to make you redundant then re-employ you when the renewal commences in January?

Some umbrella's deduct a certain amount of the funds which they collect to build up as holiday pay, e.g. if your contract is for £200 per day i.e. £1,000 per week, the brolly may hold back say 10% as holiday pay and then pay this to you when you are not submitting timesheets . Are they paying you this?

As HAB has said - keep a low profile, do you really want to get on their radar for the sake of £128 which may well be rejected anyway.

My umbrella company will be aware (if they bother to check) that my current contract ends 18th December. Should i just tell them that my contract will be renewed from 4th Jan?

My umbrella deduct the standard 12.07% holiday pay.

Like HAB + you say... i'm starting to think if it's all worth the hassle (get P45, sign-on interview, sign-on, sign off, start new contract, etc) all for the sake of £128

[kingcook]

Just so I understand correctly kingcook, is your original contract end date the 18th of December or the end of December?

Existing contract end = Friday 18th December 2009
New contract start = Monday 4th January 2010

[RichardCranium]

My umbrella deduct the standard 12.07% holiday pay.

Then aren't you on holiday from Mon 21st December and being paid by the brolly?

[kingcook]

Then aren't you on holiday from Mon 21st December and being paid by the brolly?

The point is, if my employments ends on the 18th December, holiday won't apply because i won't be employed. Just a thought

[Not So Wise]

why would you want to claim for JSA when you aren't looking for a job?

Claiming while not looking for work is actually against the rules and could get you fined or worse

And honestly, i know the people there are thick as planks but don't you think even they will smell a rat when they receive your signup and signing off forms at same time going and returning to same company (as takes about 2 weeks to month to process signing on) covering just the xmas period?

If you cannot handle 2 weeks off get a pay raise or go permie

[RichardCranium]

The point is, if my employments ends on the 18th December, holiday won't apply because i won't be employed. Just a thought

You are not employed by the client. You are employed by your brolly.

When did you think you would take the holiday? You can hardly take it while working on the client site.

So you take your paid holiday now. When that has run out, then you are unemployed.

[kingcook]

Thanks all for your feedback.

I contacted my umbrella co, and they gave me 2 choices:

1) Request your P45, and re-signup as a new employee after the 2 weeks (no mention of whether i should sign-on or not)

2) Stay on the books and take accrues holiday pay for those 2 weeks.

I went for option 2.

[kingcook]

The reason was because it would be too much messing about for £128 (all the paperwork + possible arguments with the job centre over entitlement + possible comebacks and more arguments with them in the future).