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.