Voluntary redundancy - Benefit entitlement?

Liliraine

My husband workplace are making redundancies but are also offering voluntary redundancies which he wants to take,but we have heard that you are not entitled to any benefits for 6 months,he would get a nice payout but not that great to last the 6 months as we privatley rent our home,have a 4yr old child, i'm nearly 8 months pregnant (his wife) with no other income coming in, and have loans and cards to pay etc

Does anyone know what benefits we would be entitled to if he was to take voluntary redundancy?

or is he best to hang on and wait to see if he gets made redundant without volunteering.
Thanks

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aj2703

He would be better off waiting till he is made redundant. By rights the JSA should write to his employer asking how his reduncy has comeabout. If they write back saying he took voluntary, then his benifit claim would not be approved. Also any insurances on loans, credit cards etc would not be paid out if he took voluntary. The only way to get JSA and debts paid by insurance is for him to be made redundant without taking it voluntary.

LittleVoice

Rules have changed, I believe. Voluntary redundancy is not a bar to receiving JSA.

aj2703

Are you sure..?, my mother in law works as a processor for the jsa. She says that as far as she is aware if you take voluntary redundancy your jsa claim would/should not be actioned. However she did say that some people because of the pressure of targets etc, do not send the letter out to the company asking the nature of the redundancy, they just go ahead and process it. She did say though that if it was her she would most definately send the letter out and the claim would be rejected. So it's taking a risk if you do go down that road. Also don't forget about the insurance you get for loans cards etc, if they found out it was voluntary and you told them it wasn't, not only would they stop paying but you'd be commiting fraud.

dampsquib

I took voluntary redundancy last year and was able to claim contribution based JSA immediately. As many people were being made redundant, a JSA roadshow came to our workplace to advise us. We were told that the rules changed in 2007, and "volunteers" no longer had to delay signing on and claiming benefits. When I signed on, I just produced my redundancy letter from the company, and my claim was accepted - although due to pension complications, missing Natioanal Insurance records, etc, it did take them ages to sort out my money, but eventually it was all sorted. Might be worth taking your P60s for the last 2 or 3 years along, in case you should experience similar problems with missing records.

aj2703

How long were you signed off for...?. She has said that when you first make the claim yes you will get JSA but when they make a decision it should be stopped. The time for the stopage does depend on the person who is making the decision on the claim, it could be anything upto six months.

Did your redundancy letter state that your volunteered for it.?.

Liliraine

Thanks for all replies and advice,my husband hasn't been made redundant yet but the offer of voluntary is open until next week,he has already applied for jobs within the music industry (currently works in telesales and thinks this could be a chance to do something he has a passion for) which is really hard to get into (even harder now) and this is our only chance to gets debts paid off with redundancy pay,so therefore won't have much left to live on until he gets another job.if he was to stay on at work we would still be struggling each month trying to juggle loans & cards not paying anything off at all and with another baby on the way not really what he wants to do.
Unfortunatley we cancelled the insurance on cards & loans as the protection payment cost too much.We are going to Citizens advice tomorrow as they said they would be able to right to creditors and hopefully reduce loan & card payments which would be a great help.
I rang the jobcentre and all they could tell me was it depends on what the reason is for taking voluntary redundancy.He has asked at work could he be first on list to be made redundant as no-one else wants to leave but his boss said it depends on criterias of each person working there so a chance he will have to stay or they could give him another job in the building....arrrggghh

Does he stay in a job he just "gets on with" but at least it's a job
or goes for voluntary redundancy with the chance of no debts,time with new baby,and chance to find a job he has a passion for......mmmmmm
thanks again

Liliraine

Been to Citizens Advice...

Effect on claiming benefits
126

If a client chooses voluntary redundancy,because s/he has been dismissed s/he will not be treated as having left work voluntary.

My husband will be leaving work on 28th May but will be paid his 3 months notice 28th Aug, then he can claim his JSA this also applies if he were made redundant same as taking voluntary.
Thanks everyone

Annie021063

what about mortgage redundancy cover? will this still pay out?

aj2703

Liliraine wrote: »

Been to Citizens Advice...

Effect on claiming benefits
126

If a client chooses voluntary redundancy,because s/he has been dismissed s/he will not be treated as having left work voluntary.

My husband will be leaving work on 28th May but will be paid his 3 months notice 28th Aug, then he can claim his JSA this also applies if he were made redundant same as taking voluntary.
Thanks everyone

I am sorry i fail to see how you can be dismissed then choose voluntary...?

Why goto citizens advice, you'd be far better off ringing your local benefits office to find out. Look it's entirely upto you if you go that route, but according to my mother in law, who actually processes the claims you can claim in the first instance but you almost certainly would/should have your claim stopped as voluntary redundancy comes around of your own doing. I fail to see how the goverment are relaxing the laws in the current fiancial climate with regards to voluntary, i'd have thought they would want people to stay in work for as long as possibile not give their jobs up.

aj2703

Annie021063 wrote: »

what about mortgage redundancy cover? will this still pay out?

It will pay out if the redundancy wasn't voluntary. I would almost guarantee it won't if he takes voluntary. For example my credit cards and personal loan all state they will pay as long as it's not a voluntary redundancy. Why would they pay out if you took redundancy, you are putting yourself in that position not the company you work for.