Do I need to sign on?

daftbatty

I was made redundant on the 5th January and have been looking for work since. I have £4000 in my bank and have never signed on before? Should I do this or just keep trying myself? what will be the benefits of signing on I expect I wont get any payments but what about my credits for NI. I am 50 years of age and feel so naive about all this. Thank you

bigspender1971

you should definitely sign on. I think you will be entitled to contribution based jobseekers allowance. My husband is in a similar position to you. Made redundant,received redundancy money and is signing on.

Deep_In_Debt

Yep, I signed on with redudancy money in my bank account as I was entitled to contributions based JSA.

ukdickie31

And if you do sign on you will also be protecting your NI stamps

Cliddy

You should definitely sign on. I am semi retired at roughly your age but felt that as I wasn't in employment that I would sign on. There are 2 categories. The first is open to all if you have paid NI contributions. The other is if you have savings under a certain limit. Can't remember the figure but around £16k. I got all the way under the 1st category. Even got diary dates for signing on, bank details the lot. BUT.......... they then discovered I hadn't paid NI for the relevant years. It was a surprise but I know why and this shouldn't impact on a NORMAL ex. employed person.

Having paid tax/NI all my working life (well all except this year in question !) I was a little "disappointed" can't say my real feelings here. But I do understand in my case what had happened. You may find the signing in place depressing and humiliating, but stick with it. It wasn't too bad. The staff were OK. You will have to commit to a regime of signing in and looking for jobs etc. GOOD LUCK !

HO87

All the time that you remain unemployed, without signing on, your National Insurance is not being paid. This could affect your rights to a state pension and may also affect any future claim you may have for benefits. I'd thoroughly recommend doing so - even if the fortnightly trip to the JC+ is a complete pain in the ar5e. Not only will your NI be paid but but you should receive contribution-based JSA and although its only about £62 at the moment its far better that nowt. The fact that you have £4K in the bank will not affect your entitlement to c-b JSA although it may well come into play if you then go to claim Council Tax Benefit.

If you've been happily paying tax for years this is what you have been paying for! Go and make a claim - you know it makes sense! It would also be a good idea to contact your tax office to enquire about making good the missing NI payments so there is no break in your payment record. :rolleyes2

eamon

You must sign on. It is the trigger point for so many benefits e.g. council tax benefit, free prescriptions, and any redundancy insurances that you may have (think about your mortgage protection and or any PPI on loans etc) to name but a few. Also it will pay your NI and when you get back to work issue you with the correct P45 & keep your tax affairs in order. Its your money claim it!

Cliddy

As I said in my post above my claim failed for NI reasons and therefore still learning all the ins and outs, but watch out for over-paying on NI contributions after a certain age. You only need 30 (I think) years to get the pension.
I was offered a level of signing on (can't remember the description) that gave me NI stamp ONLY, nothing else. In my case it gave me no benefit other than death benefit. If I pay for the missing NI year it is the "wrong type" of payment to permit JSA ! It just contributes towards pension years, which I don't need.
I would really welcome any counter argument to my position. While it's not too late to correct !
I'm 57 with too much in savings and fully contributed to pension. My research tells me that there is no value in trying to sign on. How do I get my NI payments correct to allow JSA without getting a job ? Of course if I can get a job..............

crapwithcash82

HO87 wrote: »

Not only will your NI be paid but but you should receive contribution-based JSA and although its only about £62 at the moment its far better that nowt.

Is this amount per week or per month? Sorry if this is a niaeve question but i'm not very clued up on this!!

shelly

crapwithcash82 wrote: »

Is this amount per week or per month? Sorry if this is a niaeve question but i'm not very clued up on this!!

Currently CB JSA is £60.50 per week.

crapwithcash82

Do you have to pay that back when you do start working again? I know a relative of mine got benefits after an accident at work, and when he went back, had to repay the benefits he received. Just wondering, I find out if my job is ok or not next week so just preparing for the worst....