Terms & Conditions

[Stalbansbenefits]

Claimant starts work. Getting Income Support prior to starting work for 3 months, and prior to that she was on her partner’s JSA(IB) claim for 4 months. Partner left household, hence that is why she went onto Income Support.

We are having a dispute about whether she is entitled to an extended payment. I intially thought yes, but then saw the following paragraph in the guidance manual

[quote:c8c1a10cad]in general, there are no linking provisions for extended payments. Any break in entitlement to JSA(Cont) or IS/JSA(IB) means the claimant must complete another 26-week period before being eligible for extended payments. However, any periods that the partner has spent on IS/JSA should count towards the 26-week qualifying period. But these weeks will only count if, during the relevant period, the person was the claimant’s partner and still is the claimant’s partner at the end of the qualifying period. The Jobcentre Plus office check whether the 26-week qualifying period is satisfied [/quote:c8c1a10cad]

There is some discussion in the office as to whether this means that, for the partner’s period of JSA entitlement to count towards the 26 weeks, the partner would have to still be the claimant’s partner when the claimant starts work…

[Anonymous]

Schedule 7(1)(d) of the HBR 2006 details the conditions surrounding the 26-week qualifying period:

(d) that the claimant had been entitled to and in receipt of income support or a jobseeker´s allowance for a continuous period of at least 26 weeks until the relevant day, and for the purpose of this head—
(i) a claimant satisfies the conditions of this sub-paragraph if he has been entitled to and in receipt of a combination of income support and a jobseeker´s allowance for at least 26 weeks and for the purposes of this sub-paragraph, a reference to the claimant being entitled to and in receipt of a jobseeker´s allowance shall include a reference to the claimant and his partner being entitled to and in receipt of a joint-claim jobseeker´s allowance;
(ii) the claimant shall be treated as having been entitled to and in receipt of income support or a jobseeker´s allowance during any period of less than 5 weeks in respect of which he was not entitled to either of those benefits because, as a consequence of his participation in an employment zone programme, he was engaged in remunerative work; and
(iii) references to the claimant include references to his partner.

…which to me does not seem to specifically prescribe that they must have been partners throughout the 26-week qualifying period and still partners at the end of that period.

[Author]

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