Giving time and volunteering can sometimes affect your entitlement to Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA).  However, if you follow a few basic rules and good practice you should be able to carry on with your volunteering and still receive your benefit.

The voluntary organisation

You can do unpaid volunteering for any type of organisation except for a member of your family.  If you do any unpaid work for a relative this is not counted as volunteering.

If you volunteer for a charity or non-profit-making organisation and you get paid money to cover your volunteering expenses such as the cost of travel or a snack or protective clothing such as wellingtons, this will not usually affect your benefit payments.  However, if you get paid a volunteering allowance or get paid just for turning up, then your benefit is likely to be reduced by the amount you are paid.

Entitlement to Jobseekers Allowance may be affected when someone wishes to undertake unpaid work for a non charitable organisation.  If a volunteer is doing what someone would normally be paid for, this may be classed as unpaid work, not volunteering, and could affect their benefit.  There are a number of reasons for this; firstly the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has a duty to those people receiving benefit to ensure they are not being treated as cheap, or free labour by employers.  Secondly, DWP has a duty to taxpayers to ensure that it is not paying benefits to those who should be receiving payment for work they are undertaking.

Available for work

To be available for work, a volunteer must be willing and able to attend a job interview at 48 hours notice and be available to start a job at a weeks notice.  This means that you can volunteer and still be available for work providing you can rearrange, or drop your volunteering.  Volunteers who are unwilling to rearrange or give up their volunteering if DWP ask them to may lose their right to JSA because they are no longer available for work.

Actively seeking work

You are only entitled to JSA for each week during which you have taken reasonable steps to find a job.  'Steps' include applying for a job, answering job advertisements and registering with an agency.  What is reasonable will depend on your skills, abilities, training and previous employment.  The onus is on you to show what steps you have taken in any week, and that the steps taken are reasonable in your case.

JSA claimants are only entitled to JSA for each week during which they have taken reasonable steps to find a job.  Volunteering is not generally considered to be a 'step' unless your adviser has told you to volunteer.  However, in considering whether the steps you have taken are reasonable, Jobcentre Plus must consider all the circumstances of your individual case, including time spent in voluntary work and the extent to which it may improve your prospects of finding employment.

Hours

There is no limit to the amount of voluntary work you can do in a week provided you remain available for, and actively seek, work.  You need to make sure you still have enough time to look for work too.

What you should do

You must inform the Jobcentre that you are undertaking voluntary work and they will be able to advise you according to your personal circumstances and the nature of the voluntary work.  You should provide a contact phone number so you can be easily contacted if a job opportunity arises.

You should tell the people for whom you are volunteering that you may be asked to attend an interview at 48 hours notice or start a job at one weeks notice.  A letter from the volunteer organiser to the Jobcentre may be useful.  This could include:

• The type of payments you receive.
• That you have discussed methods of seeking work with the volunteer organiser, that you may be contacted on a stated telephone number and that the organisation will do its best to pass messages on to you.
• That the organisation understands and accepts that you have to give up volunteering at a maximum of one weeks notice.
• That volunteering will help you develop skills, get a reference for job applications etc.
• If you are doing the same type of duties as someone who is paid for their time, an explanation of why you are not being paid.