Voluntary redundancy and benefit confusion??

chonorla

My husband has been offered voluntary redundancy - £6000 + 5.5 weeks pay equalling £7925 in total.

I am currently expecting our 3 child and am not working (recently made redundant). But will be job hunting asap as I desperately want to return to work!

My question is what can we claim benefit wise and when? I have trawled through the mse forums and found lots of different/conflicting advise!

Can by husband sign on for JSA CB as soon as he is made redundant? I phoned the Job Centre and they said yes - a friend across the road is being made redundant and they told him he had to wait till all his money had gone??

Also re housing benefit? Do we claim straight away or have to wait - we live in a council house and currently pay full rent.

Sorry for all the questions!
Finally, would the 5.5 weeks redundancy class as PILON? or is it part of the redundancy pay?

I ask all these questions because my husband would really love to re-train and we're just trying to work out our options for the immediate future. I intend to return to work if possible after baby 3 is here so it would hopefully only be a temporary situation.

(PS CAB cant fit me in till end of the week and not sure where else to ask!).

Thanks for any advice or recent experiences!

reheat

As I understand it ...

Contributions-based JSA (just over £64 a week) completely ignores what money you have, and is only based on NI contributions.

Income-based JSA (£64 single, £100 couple) pays you full amount if savings no more than £6000. Above £6000 IB JSA starts dropping off, till someone with £16000 savings won't get any IB JSA. So far as I understand it redundancy has no influence on JSA decisions directly, other than than its boost to your savings. We paid a big chunk off our mortgage, so the "savings snapshot" taken for JSA didn't have any of the redundancy in it ... that's not the reason we paid it off, just how it worked out.

The 5.5 weeks pay: if the company is stating that the redundancy pay is being calculated based on £6000 + 5.5 weeks pay, then it's redundancy pay and it's tax free. If what they are really saying is a £6000 redundancy settlement and a 5.5 week PILON, then the 5.5 weeks will be taxable.

For the record I took voluntary redundancy almost a year ago ... just got myself a job. Good luck.

chonorla

Thanks for that - it was a lot of what I thought but have read so many other replies!

I phoned the job centre to confirm again - and was told once again, JSA (CB) could be claimed immediately and wouldnt take any notice of the redundancy pay.

I phoned my husbands HR department and they confirmed the amount was the redundancy payment only (so none taxable) - no PILON etc All outstanding wages, holidays etc would be paid seperately and a wage slip received as normal for these after he had left - on normal payday.

Also phoned the housing benefit and they said we could claim straight away. They said they are only interested in "savings" as a whole and not where it came from or why you were claiming. Just that your income was low enough to receive HB.

Just aswell I phoned them all because CAB have cancelled my appointment on Friday and offered me one the friday after! Not a lot of good to us as my husbands decision has to be made by next monday.

Thanks for yr reply, hopefully now my husband can train for a job he does enjoy! And we'll be able to get by in the mean time!

woody01

Surely there wont be any benefit entitlement if the redundancy is voluntary.

lonestar1

Not so Woody

Because it was a redundancy then it means the job has been lost its just who within the pool of those people doing the Job that went that was voluntary as such benefits can be paid.

Im suprised youve been told they dont ask where the redundancy cahs went though whilst its not important to JSA(Conts) When that runs out after 6 months they will wnat to knwo where its gone if you try to claim Income Based JSA. They may view paying of your moratge as depravation of capital and work out you entitlements based on you still having the cash

chonorla

A lot of agencies I've spoken to ie benefits, ReAct etc have all said they dont distinguish between voluntary redundancy and forced redundancy as such - they say they are treated the same?

We are entitled to housing benefit as we live in a council house so the paying off, of a mortgage etc would not be an issue.

My husband intends to go back to work part time around re-training and I'll be on maternity leave with pay so we'll not be entitled to JSA IB then anyway as our income will be too high. I intend to go back to work so we'll not be entitled to benefits as such then anyway.

I was just looking at the short term help we could receive as my husband is really unhappy in his current job and we were trying to work out whether this was the chance for him to change direction.