Redundancy looming - need to plan

Bigmonty69

Hi

I have just been told that 50% of staff in my office will be made redundant by the end of July so I need to do some planning in the eventuality that I am one of those unlucky 50%.

I am married with a 4 week old son. We have approx £28k in the bank and have a £70k mortgage on a low variable interest rate. We have no other debts to speak of.

My wife is on maternity at the moment and only receives the £400 statutory pay. She plans to go back to work in Jan/Feb next year, 3 days a week, to her £40k pa job.

Assuming that I can't find a job straight away will I be entitiled to any benefits such as job seekers allowance? We weren't sure as we have a fair bit of savings, perhaps if we transfered the savings under my wifes name??

Thanks in advance.

McKneff

a new baby - congratulations:j

I would have thought that if you are made redundant and will actively seek work then you will be able to claim JSA.

Savings have no bearing on jSA -
Only means tested benefits are affected by savings ie housing benefit,
income support and it doesnt matter who's name the savings are in, you will be classed as a couple.

Hope you keep your job. Good luck

anniecave

I don't agree with the above post.

there are two types of JSA
contributions JSA and
income based JSA

If you have been working until recently for a minimum period (I think it's two years) and paying national insurance contributions then if you are looking for work then I think you should be entitled to contributions based JSA. This only lasts for a period of time though (six months?)

After that (or if you don't qualify for contributions based JSA) you go to income based JSA. Any savings over a certain threshold are converted into an income figure - basically it's assumed you will live off your savings.

The website entitledto.co.uk is good for working out income based jsa. It didn't include any reference to contributions based JSA last time I looked.

anniecave

take a look at this thread

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1767475