Signing on for Job Seeker's Allowance in Work

Not my favourite experience of the year. To get £70 per week for up to six months, I had to visit the office every fortnight, show evidence of having job searched every day and declare the colour of my underwear.

Ok, so maybe I didn’t have to declare the colour of my underwear, but the experience of signing on strips you back like metaphorical undressing.

My job search coach did say “I can guarantee you’ll have a job before the six months are up”. And I did, but before I did, I learned the system. I registered with a few job sites and signed up for email notifications which meant that all I had to do to show job searching was list the emails that had landed in my inbox each day. None of the work I did get, whether temporary, freelance or the job I now have, came from any of these sites. Does this sound rather a waste of time? It was.

Then I signed off to do some supply teaching. Then I signed back on again, then off again to do more supply teaching, then on again. Then I went into hospital and took “sick leave” from signing on. Then I started some freelance work, but it was paid in arrears, so I signed off but still had to claim because I hadn’t got any pay through.

It would all have been much easier if I’d simply not worked and just claimed, or just not worked and not claimed, especially as somehow my tax code got allocated to my (miniscule) teachers pension and everything I earned, including the JSA pittance, was taxed at Basic Rate! The tax finally got sorted out this month and I did get a respectable tax rebate, so not all bad :).

Enough of this. It’s boring.