Contributory (New Style) JSA and furlough payments

Hi all,

Can’t seem to find confirmation as to whether you can still claim CJSA while on furlough and if not why not.

Are you immediately prevented from claiming because you are still on a payroll technically?

I assume furlough = earnings.

In most cases would mean no entitlement to CJSA due to the part time earnings rules and payments being over the basic CJSA amount, but in cases where the furlough payments are really small (have had a few cases of £20) presumably the claimant could claim CJSA with the money taken into account?

EKS

Would it not in part depend on what was in the employment contract - some contracts restrict people from working elsewhere (although I understand the job search requirements have been removed for 3 months).

Interested in the answer to this.

Victoria

the criteria for jsa conts are :
be 18 or over
be under the State Pension age
not be in full-time education
be available to work
not be working at the moment, or be working less than 16 hours per week on average
not have an illness or disability which stops you from working
live in England, Scotland or Wales
have the right to work in the UK
You’ll also need to show you’re looking for work to keep getting payments.

i think a furloughed worker would fail, as they are treated as working while they are on furlough - so would be deemed to be working more than 16 hours.
Additionally. most employmers are saying that an employee cannot work for another employer during the hours thy’d normally work for them (so if I work Mon - friday 9 - 5 and am furloughed,, my employer will provbable say i can look for other work, but only after 5pm dureing the week and weekend)  so they may have problems showing they can look for and are avaiable for full time work.

Hmm, I have seen UC impose work search requirements on people who are off on long term sick but still actually employed. Would be a bit rich for JSA to take the diametrically opposite line but not unexpected I suppose.

I think that the question might also be asked the other way around - would you be entitled to furlough payments if you were claiming JSA?

If their furlough payments are so low - for instance £20, does this not indicate that they are only working about 5 hours a week?  They could claim JSA in those circumstances surely?