redundancy, savings & 'the dole'

james3333

hi guys,
looks like i am going to loose my job in august.
im 31 years old, single with mortgage of 80k outstanding
i have £2,000 in an ISA
i am going to be getting somewhere around £10,000 redundancy payout.

now, i just want to know, will the 2k savings i have, or the 10k payout affect how much i can claim on the dole? ( i have never been on the dole before)

thanks.

nibs

Hi, sorry to hear you are losing your job. I am going down for jobcenter interview today having lost my job on friday, and had to answer lots of questions over the phone - one of which was "do you have savings of more than £16000"
If so that would affect your claim.

(my answer is no - i should be so lucky )

HTH

Andy_L

As you've (presumably) been paying NI contributions you will receive "contributions based job seekers allowance" which is not means tested so your savings have no effect on it. It.s the princely sum of £60.50/week

james3333

so its not called 'the dole' anymore, its 'jobseekers allowance'?

glad my hard saved, measley 2k will not affect my brilliant sum of £60 per week then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (cant be too careful with this bloody government, you get screwed for having a 'rainy day pot' so i thought i would check.

so the 10k redundancy payout will not affect that either, correct.

thanks people.

Numpty_Monkey

The redundancy pay will be ok, and your savings

the good news is
JSA is going up on 11/1/09 to £64.30:rolleyes:

Fruitcake

Have a look at Numpty Monkey's "I've been made redundant" thread here.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1473549

There is lots of useful info it.

As others have mentioned, for Contribution Based job Seekers Allowance (JSA) savings are not taken into account because you have been paying in to the pot that pays out the allowance.

If you haven't been paying National Insurance, then only savings above 16 grand are taken into account. If you have more than this amount you might consider paying off some of your mortgage. I'm not sure, but it might also be possible to put money in an ISA in your spouse's name. Perhaps someone else will know if this can be done without beng taken into account.

eta

Just re-read and saw that you are single. The the answer to the ISA question isn't relavent in your case but might help others.

james3333

thanks everyone.
that eases my mind on matters, slightly.....still gotta find another job though :-(

james3333

PS anyone know if i will get any reduction on my council tax?

cheers

Fruitcake

james3333 wrote: »

PS anyone know if i will get any reduction on my council tax?

cheers

You can apply for Concil Tax Benefit at the same time as Job Seekers Allowance. As far as I know the criteria to qualify for this is the same as for JSA. You may also be able to claim for Housing benefit as well, and a Tax rebate from the Inland revenue.

As I said, go through Numpty Monkey's thread and trawl through each of the websites.

Although my job is safe, my brother and my son are both being made redundant, hence the reason for my search for info.

crockpot

Hi

I have been on the phone with the job center today and go for an interview for contributions based job seakers allowance on friday, I have been asked to take details of my redundancy pay with me, why?

Surly `contributions based` is just that?

james3333

MMMMmmmm, sounds 'ominous'...let us know what they want it for when you find out, unless someone can shed light on the matter?