A Cautionary Tale
 

This only realy applies to self employed instructors intending to go onto full employment later.
I was made redundant when SFT whent into admin, so off I whent to the job centre to sign on only to be told over a month later that I can not get job seekers alowance.
This is because I have been employed by SFT for less than 2 years and before that, I was self employed (as a ppl instructor). All this despite paying class 1 and class 4 (national insurance)taxes, this just goes towards my pension, which of course will be abolished by the time I retire.
Not sure what the moral of this is but be careful out there. :confused:

P-61,

(a) try a talk with your local Citizens Advice Bureau - they are more up to date on benefit regs than I am, and
(b) for contribution based benefits, ISTR they are based on the contribution year (tax year) prior to the calendar year - your contributions in 2000/01 will only be "usable" from next month.
So get that advice, and try another claim in January. (If you still need it, hope you don't!)

Regards,
Tocsin.