Jobseekers Allowance

millie

I have just been made redundant, and as I have worked for the company for 17 Years I have 17 weeks notice, I am working about 5 of these weeks and being paid the rest in lieu. Do I have to wait until the notice period runs out before signing on. Also is jobseekers allowance not paid if you have money in the bank, because I will be receiving redundancy money as well. The payment in leiu is gross so I will not be paying National Insurance, which will make me short on contributions for the year, so how can I make that up

Fran

Hi millie,

Have a look at this Redundancy Help Website. It should answer a lot of your questions.

millie

I am pretty much sorted with the redundancy it is the jobseekers allowance I am not sure about the rules

Spendless

Hi Millie
When i was made redundant at the end of 1997 i was given 18 weeks redundancy pay. 12 of these were for working there for past 6 years (2 weeks per 1 year worked - enhanced package by company cos should have only been 1 week per year) plus 6 weeks in lieu of notice.

When i went to job centre i did not receive any JSA for 6 weeks as i had instead received the money in lieu of notice from my employer.

It was job seekers contribution based i applied for - prior to being made redundant i had worked full time for over 13 years.

My redundancy pay which was around £4,000 made no difference to my claim. I think this was because it was contribution based rather than income based.

Are you single? I was when made redundant so if i hadn't found a job b4 my 6 months JSA contribution based was up - i think i would then gone onto JSA income based.
If i'd been married or living with someone i wouldn't have got JSA income based as his wages would have been taken into account.

I also think you are allowed to have so much money in bank before you become inelligible for JSA income based - but i have no idea how much it is.

Bear in mind - my experience reates to 7 years ago and things might have changed by now

Spendless

Do I have to wait until the notice period runs out before signing on. Also is jobseekers allowance not paid if you have money in the bank, because I will be receiving redundancy money as well. The payment in leiu is gross so I will not be paying National Insurance, which will make me short on contributions for the year, so how can I make that up

Sorry - just re-read your post and noticed i hadn't answered some questions.

I was made redundant Dec 26th 1997, I went to job centre as soon as they re-opened after xmas - ie first few days in Jan.

I used to sign on every 2 weeks even though i received no JSA due to the payment in lieu of notice - i did this so i could have a NI credit for these weeks. If i remember rightly it was the job centre that told me to do this.

I would suggest you ringing your job centre and saying you are about to be made redundant on xx date, and asking them when you need to come in and sort it out

Best wishes

millie

Thanks I will ring them, My husband does not work he is on incapacity benefit (The Old One) because he has a heart condition. If I can sign on and get my NI protected that will be some help as I am nearly 58 and do not have enough full contrbution years any way

bergy1

Hi

Before I say anything I would advise you to seek advice from a specialist advice service - they are generally free and extremely helpful. Citizens Advice are one but a whole load have been set up in recent years through - what was Legal Aid - CLS. They can help in looking into your best avenue of benefits help.

If your husband claims incapacity benefit you may want to investigate CA carers allowance/ coupled with DLA - Disability Living Allowance - they are - if I recall - not means tested on current income or savings and becoming a carer for your husband may be an option.

As I said the specialists are there

go to

http://www.clsdirect.org.uk/directory/index.asp?lang=en

you can look up a local advice agency there

millie

He is not that ill that he need care He had a heart bypass 12 years ago, a heart attack the following year.

recently he had a stent fitted because the bypass was starting to block in places. so I would not qualify for anything like that.

Testee

I am in a similar situation in that I have recently been made redundant, recieved payment in lieu of notice and a lump sum payment so I have spent a couple of months circulating the merry-go-round of the JobCentre.

If you have received a payment in lieu of notice you are not entitled to JSA for those weeks but there is a form you can complete to get your National Insurance Contributions paid for that period of time. You need to show them the letter you received from your employer detailing the number of weeks your lieu of notice payment covered - this form is available from the JobCentre but not all the staff there seem to know about it. It's just a single sheet of A4 that looks as if it was typed many years ago and has been photocopied trillions of times!!

You will only be entitled to claim contribution based JSA for six months so don't sign on for the period of time covered by the lieu of notice because you only get to sign on for six months regardless of whether you are receiving benefit for the whole of those six months. Thus if you sign on straight away and have eight weeks lieu of notice period then you only receive pound notes for 18 weeks - the first 8 weeks you just sign on for nothing.

One other thing to bear in mind is if you are receiving an occupational or private pension your JSA will be reduced penny for penny on any amount of pension over £50 per week.

I would definitely investigate the carer's allowance at some point because although not quite as much money as JSA it will pay your NIC and you may still qualify for that if you are on a pension?

Hope some of that made sense.

Good Luck

Ladywriter1968

millie wrote: »

I have just been made redundant, and as I have worked for the company for 17 Years I have 17 weeks notice, I am working about 5 of these weeks and being paid the rest in lieu. Do I have to wait until the notice period runs out before signing on. Also is jobseekers allowance not paid if you have money in the bank, because I will be receiving redundancy money as well. The payment in leiu is gross so I will not be paying National Insurance, which will make me short on contributions for the year, so how can I make that up

I think that you can pay your own NI contributions, if you ask at the post office about this or the local job centre they will advise, but I believe you may be able to get a form from post office.

healy

Ladywriter1968 wrote: »

I think that you can pay your own NI contributions, if you ask at the post office about this or the local job centre they will advise, but I believe you may be able to get a form from post office.

Did you realise that this thread is over 5 years old?