I've been on a 3 month internship during which time I didn't sign on. I might not be faced with another period of unpaid employment – can I sign on, on the basis that I'm looking for paid employment or does the fact that I'm going to choose the voluntary work over any old shite job they might come up with go against me?

I always thought that to get unemployment benefit, you have to be available to work, which isn't the case if you're doing work experiance.

Might be someting else your entitled to though, particularly if the work experiance will lead to employment.

as above you must be available to work.

they will also ask you if you have worked 16hrs or more in any given signing on period, regardless of being paid, or not, i anticipate you will be working over that a fortnight and they wouldn't give you anything.

However, i take it you aren't listed as a student or anything? You may well be entitled to income support if the total wage of your household is low enough.

Don't take people's word on here, ask at the Job Centre.

I've asked at the job centre in the past, and the answer is no.
Sorry to be the bringer of bad news!

I worked voluntary full time for a year while on the dole and also got £50 a week travel from the company. I just had to be available to work if a job came up. Of course this was in the early 90's so things may have changed

It confirms what I thought I knew already. Seem to remember income support being means tested and I have too much in the way of savings, which is what I'm trying to preserve while unpaid.

cheers

There are two types of Job Seeker's Allowance; the first is contributions based, which means that if you've paid enough into the system, you are entitled to claim JSA for up to six months based on that contribution. This means they do not evaluate your claim based on household income or savings.

After six months, you then move to means tested benefit, at which point any savings over, I think, about £16,000 (I could be way out on this, TBH, it's the figure I have in my head but not sure why), are then taken into consideration, as is any other household income, e.g. maternity pay from a spouse.

You can't do voluntary work and claim as other people have said, becase you're not elligible for work. However, there might be more to it than this. When I sign on the question is always phrased 'any voluntary work over 16 hours', so you may be able to do some voluntary work, but certainly not a full weeks worth. Same goes for training courses.

However, there is something called the rapid restart programme which is designed for people taking up voluntary work, training programmes or temporary positions, where you know they will end at a set date and saves having to jump through all the hoops again.

If you're not working and not doing voluntary work that would prevent you from claiming, then you really should sign on. Some friends of mine have been out of work since Feb and have been living off savings saying that the amount you get isn't worth the agro. That might be true (it's actually about £250 a month) but the key thing about signing on is that they also pay your NI contributions. You can also get help with travel costs to interviews. I've had about £150 of expenses paid so far – it's very expensive to travel into London during rush hour, about £30 return each time. so this really makes a difference.

Best of luck with finding work!