4. Amount of benefit

• Contribution-based jobseeker's allowance
• Income-based jobseeker's allowance

Jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) is payable after seven ‘waiting days’.

Contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance

The amount of contribution-based JSA depends on your age.

Your age	Weekly rate from April 2024
Under 25	£71.70
25 or over	£90.50

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. Contribution-based JSA is only paid for up to 26 weeks. Unlike income-based JSA, you only get amounts for yourself, not for a partner.

Income-based jobseeker’s allowance

Income-based JSA is worked out in the same way as income support (IS). The amount you get is made up of:

•personal allowances; and
•premiums; and
•housing costs – ie, certain service charges.

The total of these is called your ‘applicable amount’. If you have no other income (the student loan and some grants count as income), you are paid your full applicable amount. Otherwise, any income you have is topped up with income-based JSA to the level of your applicable amount. If your weekly income is above your applicable amount, you are not entitled to income-based JSA. See Chapter 16 for how to work out your weekly income. See Chapter 7 for how to work out your applicable amount. The rules are almost the same as for IS, with the following differences.

•If you are in a couple and only one of you is under 18, you get the higher £142.25 personal allowance if the younger partner is responsible for a child or is eligible for income-based JSA, severe hardship payments, IS (or would be if not a member of a couple) or income-related employment and support allowance (ESA).
•If you are in a ‘joint-claim couple’ (see below), you can get a disability premium (at the couple rate) if one of you has had limited capability for work for 364 days (196 days if terminally ill). You must claim ESA to establish limited capability for work, even if you might not get it.