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Jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) is payable after seven ‘waiting days’. The amount of new-style JSA depends on your age.

You may get less than this if you have part-time earnings or an occupational or personal pension, but the amount is not affected by a student loan or grant. New-style JSA is only paid for up to 26 weeks.

You start your claim for new-style jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) online (see gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance/apply-new-style-jsa).

You are usually given an appointment for an interview. Claim as soon as you can, as JSA can only be backdated in limited circumstances.

If you think a decision about your jobseeker’s allowance is wrong, you can ask the DWP to look at it again. This process is known as a ‘mandatory reconsideration’. Provided you ask within the time limit (usually one month), the DWP notifies you of the decision in a ‘mandatory reconsideration notice’. If you are still not happy when you get this notice, you can appeal to the independent First-tier Tribunal. If it was not possible to ask the DWP to reconsider the decision within a month, you can ask for a late revision (within 13 months), explaining why it is late. You can also ask the DWP to look at a decision again at any time if certain grounds are met – eg, if there has been an official error.

If you get new-style jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), you can claim universal credit as well.

New-style JSA overlaps with certain other benefits, so you cannot, for example, get new-style JSA and maternity allowance at the same time. See CPAG’s Welfare Benefits Handbook for details.

New-style JSA is taken into account when calculating whether the benefit cap applies (see here and here).

• Women having a baby can claim statutory maternity pay (SMP) if they have an employer or maternity allowance if they have recently worked.
• The mother’s partner can claim statutory paternity pay (SPP).
• Parents adopting a child can claim statutory adoption pay (SAP) and SPP – one partner can claim SAP and the other SPP.
• Either partner in a couple can claim statutory shared parental pay instead of SMP, SPP or SAP.
• If a child is in neonatal care, dies, or is stillborn, parents may be eligible for statutory neonatal care pay or statutory parental bereavement pay.
• Part-time and full-time students are eligible for these benefits.

Students are eligible for maternity, paternity, adoption, parental bereavement and neonatal care benefits if they pass the basic rules for these. See CPAG’s Welfare Benefits Handbook for details. What follows is a brief outline of the qualifying conditions.

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Child Poverty Action Group works on behalf of the more than one in four children in the UK who are growing up in poverty. It does not have to be like this. We use our understanding of what causes poverty and the impact it has on children’s lives to campaign for policies that will prevent and solve poverty, for good. We provide training, advice and information to make sure hard-up families get the financial support they need. We also carry out high-profile legal work to establish and protect families’ rights. If you are not already supporting us, please consider making a donation, or ask for details of our membership schemes, training courses and publications.

Published by Child Poverty Action Group

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© Child Poverty Action Group 2025

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Child Poverty Action Group is a charity registered in England and Wales (registration number 294841) and in Scotland (registration number SC039339), and is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England (registration number 1993854). VAT number: 690 808117.

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Angela Toal is a welfare rights worker with CPAG in Scotland, working on the Benefits for Students service.

First and foremost, many thanks to Judith Paterson, Head of Advice and Rights at CPAG in Scotland, who wrote the first few editions of this Handbook and continues to provide invaluable checking and advice. Many thanks also to Frances Ryan at CPAG in Scotland for checking this edition.

Grateful thanks are due to staff at the Student Awards Agency Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council for their time and expertise in checking and advising on this Handbook. Thanks too to all of those on the project advisory group for their support and encouragement throughout the year.

Many thanks go to John Dickie and everyone else at CPAG in Scotland for their invaluable support and practical help.

Thanks to Kathy Proctor for editing this edition, Katherine Dawson for compiling the index and Sarah Warburton for proofreading the text.

CPAG is grateful for the Scottish government’s financial support towards this Handbook.