Ok thank you very much for your help. Hopefully then, it may not even come to that and he may be feeling better in a few weeks. It's all been so overwhelming for us as this is all completely new and we just don't have a clue what we are doing. I will certainly look up some information as best I can. Thanks again.

Ok thank you both for replying, that is very helpful. As the work capability assessments are not happening does this mean there will be a delay for payment? I'm not sure how it works but I do know someone who was put into a "group" or something after the assessment and then he got paid whatever it is they pay you while you are not looking for work. Thank you

Hi, I am looking for some advice please as we are not in the know at all with claiming benefits and it is all very new to us. My husband lost his job in March and we began a claim for new style JSA (contribution based) and Universal credit as I only work part time and we have one child. This has all been sorted and is being paid. However, we now have another problem. My husband has had a history on and off of depression since we lost our son several years ago and although he has needed medication and the odd bout of being off sick, he has always worked. On Easter Monday he had an accident and ended up having emergency surgery and has lost part of his finger. He is having physiotherapy to help with mobility with his hand and after losing his job, the current situation with lock down and this added trauma he has slipped back into depression. I am having difficulty just trying to get him to get out of bed and he seems completely uninterested in anything. I managed to get the doctor to call him yesterday and have a long chat. He has decided that he must carry on with the treatment and has prescribed anti-depressants. He also says he is not fit for work at the moment and has provided a fit note stating this for one month and a review afterwards. I have informed UC of this and they have updated it. We need to send the fit note in. However, what happens about JSA? Do we need to contact someone about that and let them know he is not looking for work at the moment? Also, it it worth asking to claim ESA or is he better just stopping theJSA and leaving it as just UC? Can he fill in a claim for ESA while JSA is still active? We are not sure how to proceed and obviously don't want to end up worse off. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long winded post but I needed to be clear what was happening. Thank you.

Andrew.... I am glad it's not just me and my husband who are confused with all of this. He got made redundant on 19th March and I worked part time in a pub so none of us are at work at the moment so we applied for universal credit as we have a daughter. Someone on here advised that JSA (new style) might be an idea as its every fortnight even though it's deducted from the UC. He claimed the JSA on 26th March. We had a text to say someone would ring within 2 weeks. Nobody rang, no letter has come and we've heard nothing at all, which is understandable in the circumstances at the moment. However, this morning we have had a payment of just over £126 go into the bank from JSA so obviously it's been processed but we have nothing from them to say what he needs to do with regard to job searching, signing on etc so we were baffled. Glad we came across your post as it has helped a little with the confusion. All the best and hope you get sorted.

Thank you. No it is my mum's house and she does no longer pay mortgage. She owns it but if and when anything happens to her (God forbid) it must be sold as she had equity release a few years back and so we will become homeless. The council tax is in her name and she pays full council tax. Yes I have had a look at the benefits calculator but our situation isn't really the norm so you can't quite explain it properly on there. Maybe I should ask CAB for advice. Thanks again.

Hi, Husband lost his job on the 19th of this month and I work part time in a pub (currently waiting for this 80% wage to kick in) so will get around £100 per week for my wages. We have one child and have now applied for universal credit. We could not apply for housing costs/benefit whatever it is called because we live with my mother in her house. She is 72 and on pension. So....as we were paying my mum £500 per month to live in the house and towards the household bills, we will no longer be able to do this and it will put a massive strain on her finances. We can not claim any help towards this because it is not an official tenancy or anything so what my question is... If they say that we can expect to live rent free and take advantage of my mum, can she then claim as we are three dependants? Or possibly at the very least, get some kind of reduction in council tax or something as we will be classed as a family on low income and on benefits, all residing at her house and paying nothing. It is quite confusing and something we are not familiar with as we have always worked and not been in this situation before. Thank you for any advice.

I don't know, I'm not clued up all on the legalities of things like this. I was worried that the administrators had more powers or could demand the goods back. Thank you I will have a read of the threads.

I was going to go in the store this week to try and sort something out about lowering our payments as my husband lost his job just over a week ago and we are waiting to hear about universal credit. At this moment in time, until something is sorted we actually only have £113 a week income for a family of 3. What will happen if we just make token payments? Is there somewhere we can write to and explain the situation, I don't want anyone turning up at the door.

Thank you for the reply. I am just wondering if it might then be a good idea to claim the JSA as I think our first payment for UC will probably be zero anyway as the assessment period will show that my husband received around 700 pounds from his employer...final pay, holidays owed etc and although it might sound great, it has only just about scraped to pay our bills for this month and so if I am right, we will have to now wait until the end of May before they actually pay us anything. If we also claim the JSA, we would still get paid that wouldn't we? And in the following months (unless he's back in a job) the JSA will just get deducted from the UC so we wouldn't be any worse off. Am I right? Is it a good idea or not? As you can tell we are definitely not clued up on this and don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot. Thanks again

thank you for a quick reply

Hi, I am new here. I was directed to the forum by a friend who uses the site regularly and I would appreciate any help that I could get. I work part time in a pub, earning £119 per week. My husband has always worked full time but lost his job last week through redundancy. Because he swapped jobs 18 months ago he will not be entitled to any redundancy pay and with the current situation, the pub where I work is closed and my employer is sorting out with HMRC for 80% of my wages. So... we know absolutely nothing about claiming benefits as we have always worked. Anyway, I managed to submit a claim for Universal Credit last week and we have had over the phone interviews. We have been accepted for an advance to last us until the first payment is made and we have to pay it back over several months. We have just been told by a relative that my husband should be able to claim new style JSA for 182 days separately but as well as universal credit as he has made enough national insurance contributions. Is this right? As I wouldn't want to try to claim something else and mess up the original claim. Also, would it just get deducted from the universal credit claim anyway as extra income? Or perhaps so much in the pound? I am confused. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as we are quite worried about it all and we totally understand there are millions of people also in a state at the moment. Hope everyone is ok and staying safe...that is the most important thing! Thank you in advance.