Full-time Athlete

[psycoconnetic]

Hi guys. I'm an athlete(soon -eighteen-), who trains already 13x/week(6x my sport/7x conditioning), looking forward to 2012 and I have been invited to train full-time at a special centre by merit. However, sponsorship is scarce in my sport and I need a way to live until I secure some...

Can I get housing-benefit(to bedsit at/close to the centre) and income-based JSA if I say that I am a full-time athlete? If I am a full-time athlete looking to secure sponsorship? Or what? Do I actually have to be looking for 'traditional-work' so sponsorship wouldn't count, or does it?

I know of other athletes who have lived off of JSA/housing benefit in bad/early days, who have competed/gone on to compete internationally with official funding/sponsorship but I don't know how they did/do it.

Thanks for any help..