I am 58 years old, just recently split from my partner, I am now living with my brother but not for much?

How many agencies are you registered with, I was with 5,and was job hunting for over 2 years, but rarely had a week go by without some kind of work with which to pay the bills.

You have alternatives, sit and wait for something to happen or get out their and make it happen, get the proverbial part time cleaning job while you are job hunting.

I did industrial cleaning (it was as much like cleaning as driving a Tank in the Army is to driving to the shops in your car) Glass recycling on the conveyor belts sorting the rubbish (the used tampons and Used nappies were the worst, that was on minimum wage) but it paid the Mortgage, and the loan, and the Council tax.

You need to be proactive, as long as you can just keep paying the bills, and don't be shy of the Charity shops, TK Maxx and Primark and you will survive.

Start looking at getting out and getting some kind of income, shelf stacking is not as easy as the stupids in the Daily Newspapers make out, then worry about a full time job.

You may be able to get some JSA if the rental income as profit after you have paid the mortgage, insurance and other expenses (it may be the same as your tax allowable expenses - second link) on the buy to let house is less than the £65pw or so you would get on JSA - I'm assuming you're talking about the income based JSA and not contributions based btw.

The other issue though is that the house counts as capital, which would make you ineligible for JSA as presumably it is worth more than the £16,000 capital limit.

But there are certain circumstances where it can be disregarded for up to 26 weeks, and longer if the decision makers at the DWP think it is 'reasonable'.

One is if you are planning to move into the house but you have to wait till your tenant's rental agreement is up.

Another is if you are taking steps to sell the house, which probably doesn't apply.

It's all in the link, it's about pension credit, but the capital rules and disregards on property are the same for all means tested benefits.

Another issue is whether you would be able to claim any housing and council tax benefit for what you are paying your brother, the problem here is that when renting off a relative it is often assumed to be a 'contrived' tenancy solely for the purpose of obtaining benefit, so you have to provide evidence that it is a 'proper commercial agreement', it can be done but it can be tricky.

It's quite a complicated situation, but I think you should try claiming JSA and see what happens because you shouldn't be trying to live on only £150 a month.