Unemployed EEA lone parent - no HB as new JSA rules

This is probably me being completely off track, but given that there is case law (Elim?) allowing someone to count as a jobseeker despite claiming Income Support, I was wondering if (assuming they otherwise qualify eg as lone parent child under 5) that an EEA migrant would be able to claim Income Support rather than IB-JSA and therefore still be able to put in a fresh claim for HB?

In other words:

1. Is it being on IB-JSA, or being a ‘jobseeker’ (as opposed to retained worker status) that disqualifies the EEA from HB?
and

2. Does being a jobseeker while on Income Support mean that - unlike most EEA Income Support claimants with no alternative R2R - they have a R2R because they are in the labour market?

1.  It’s being a jobseeker.

2.  She will have a right to reside (as long as she’s worked for the requisite period, etc) if she retains worker status and is in connection with the labour market.  I’m presuming that as you’ve mentioned Elmi she’s worked here.

However, I’ll bet you a pound to a penny if she claims IS now she’ll be refused (wrongly as long as she answers yes to the question on the hab’ res’ section of the IS form “are you looking for work”?) on right to reside grounds.  It happens all the time.  If she’s on JSA already she should leave well alone unless she’s struggling with her job seeking commitments.  She can restrict her availability for work to 16 hours per week because of her caring commitments as long as she can show reasonable prospects of getting a job.

Problem is she doesn’t have retained worker status - just ‘jobseeker’ so I think it’s going to be a problem as I’m guessing she will be refused R2R for Income Support.