'New style' Contributory Jobseekers Allowance

New Style Contributory Jobseeker’s Allowance is for people looking for work who have paid sufficient national insurance contributions to qualify. It is not affected by savings, capital or income, other than your earnings or any occupational or personal pension income you have. Your earnings are taken into account in full, except for a disregard of usually £5 a week. The first £50 a week of your occupational and personal pension is ignored, but amounts above that are taken into account.

Jobseeker’s Allowance based on national insurance contributions, is not being replaced by Universal Credit, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), have re-named it ‘New Style Contributory Jobseekers Allowance’. Any new claims for contributory based Jobseeker’s Allowance will be for the ‘New Style' type benefit and paid to you only, with or without a ‘top up’ of Universal Credit. Any additional income is dependent on your household circumstances.

Who can claim?

You qualify if all the following apply:

• You are unemployed or are working less than 16 hours a week.
• You do not have ‘limited capability for work’ – i.e., you are not considered too ill to work
• You satisfy the ‘work-related requirements’ – i.e., you must be available for and actively seeking work
• You satisfy the national insurance contribution condition. These include having paid sufficient class 1 or special class 2 in one of the last two recent tax years before the year of your claim, so you need to have been working at least at some point in those years.
• You are under state pension age
• You are not getting Income Support
• You are in Great Britain

How much do you get?

New Style JSA is payable for 6 months and you get an amount for yourself. Amounts for your partner and children are not included. The amount you receive depends on your age.

Under 25: £59.20 a week (2021/22)
25 or over: £74.70 a week (2021/22)

How do you claim?

You are normally expected to claim New Style Jobseekers Allowance online, via:
www.gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance/how-to-claim

If you are unable to make you claim online, you can ring new claims:
0800 055 6688