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New Deal 50 plus

New Deal 50 plus aims to help you explore the barriers that might be making it difficult for you to get a job if you’re out of work. It offers you a range of support to improve your employment prospects.

You can join New Deal 50 plus if you’re over 50 and have been on at least one of the following benefits for the last six months or longer:

• Employment and Support Allowance
• Income Support
• Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Incapacity Benefit
• Severe Disablement Allowance
• Pension Credit

You may also be able to join if you’ve been getting National Insurance credits, Carer’s Allowance or Bereavement Allowance, or if your partner has been getting other benefits for you for at least six months.

From October 2009, in some areas New Deal is being replaced by a different programme called 'Flexible New Deal'.

• Flexible New Deal

However, New Deal 50 plus is still running in the following areas:

England

• Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex
• Cheshre, Halton and Warrington
• City and east London
• Cumbria, Lancashire and Merseyside
• Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Swindon
• Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
• north, north east, south and west London
• Northumbria
• South Tyne and Wear Valley
• Thames Valley
• west of England, Dorset and Somerset
• West Yorkshire

Scotland

• Forth Valley, Fife and Tayside
• Glasgow
• Highlands, Islands, Clyde Coast and Grampian

New Deal 50 plus personal adviser

When you join New Deal 50 plus, you’ll get a personal adviser. They will be from Jobcentre Plus and will help you at every stage of New Deal. They will check how you’re doing and help you plan what to do next. You should talk to your personal adviser if you’re unsure about something or you have a question.

Joining New Deal 50 plus

If you want to take part in New Deal 50 plus contact Jobcentre Plus and arrange to meet a personal adviser. At this meeting, you and the personal adviser will decide what you should do next. You might agree that you need to update your skills or learn skills for job interviews.

Joining New Deal 50 plus is up to you. You do not have to take part. If you do take part, your personal adviser will show you how you could be better off in work than if you stay on benefits.

• Find your local Jobcentre Plus office Opens new window

Help when you start a job

Once you find a job, you may get Working Tax Credit and an In-work Training Grant. Your personal adviser can help you claim these.

About Working Tax Credit for 50 plus

The Working Tax Credit for 50 plus could top up your wages when you start work. You may get Working Tax Credit for as long as you work, but you can only get the specific Working Tax Credit for 50 plus for one year.

You can get Working Tax Credit for 50 plus if you:

• are 50 or over
• will be working for at least 16 hours a week
• were on benefits for people out of work

How much you get depends on you and your family. Ask your personal adviser to explain more.

About the In-work Training Grant

Once you start work you can get a training grant. This is to help you update your skills or learn new ones. You can use the money to pay for training at your work or at a local college. You could get up to £1,500 for work-related training.

• More about the Fifty Plus In-work Training Grant (education and learning section)

Please contact Jobcentre Plus to find out more about New Deal 50 plus.

• Find your local Jobcentre Plus office Opens new window