Redundancy - help with bills

Cozzer79

Hi all, I'm being made redundant on the 31st December this year and have pointed out to my employer that I'm entitled to redundancy despite coming to the end of a fixed term contract (I've had 4 years continuous service) they've agreed to look into how much they should pay me. However, I doubt that this is going to cover a months bills.

My first issue is to do with rent, although I know I can apply for housing benefit I've been told by a number of people that my lettings agents don't accept housing benefit - and I know this to be true if I were trying to rent a property but didn't know if this were the case having been living there for over 18 months. The contract is up for renewal in April next year and I suspect that they won't renew it if I'm still unemployed by then; does anyone know if they can refuse housing benefit in this case? Just in case anyone is interested, I'm dealing with Chancellors. I believe you can apply for Council Tax Benefit on the same form for Housing Benefit so hopefully this should pan out.

Onwards from here, acting on the advice from work that I was going to be issued with a permanent contract going into the new year I started reclaiming the PPI from my personal loan for which I'd bought my car... However, due to the change in circumstances I now need to be able to claim on the PPI - fortunately I think up until now they've been ignoring my applications to cancel it, so hopefully I should be alright on this score.

Then I guess it's apply for Unemployment Benefit to help with the remainder of my bills until I'm able to find more work - does anyone think I've missed anything?

Colin

cavework

OP,
years ago I had a Landlord who refused H/B Tenants.
I explained this when claiming and my H/B was paid directly to me. Not sure if this is still the case. I,m pretty sure it refers to when you are first applying to rent a property.
If you have not received any settlement for your PPI then my understanding is , it would still stand as long as all payments are up to date and the policy is still running.

Purpletopaz

Hi, You would not have to tell them you are applying for benefit all you need is an up to date tenancy agreement or a proof of rent letter, along with LLs details,LHA will be paid direct to you and then you pay them, CHeck your Local Authority website for Up to Date Local Housing rates.

It si the same form for CTB and LHA, Contact them as soon as office opens as first point of contact as LHA and CTB is not usually backdated.

grey_lady

Agree about not needing to tell the agency that you're in reciept of housing benefit, you can have it paid directly to you but the council will probably send someone round to check your place out.

Not sure about redundancy on a fixed term contract though, most contractors i know get paid more money than permenent staff for the hours they work knowing that they aren't entitled to holiday pay, sick pay or redundancy - this might be different if you're taxed under PAYE - but if you're not e.g paid gross and responsible for paying your own tax and NI, well if it's the latter then I honestly dont think you're entitled to redundancy so please update this when you find out for certain, be interested to know.

Amanda65

I work for an occupational benevolent fund and we will help people who have worked in our industry with either regular grants and / or one off payments. There are loads of funds attached to all sorts of industries and many of us have the problem that the people we can help don't know about us !

Go to www.benevolencetoday.org , click on the 'Search by Category' section on the right hand side and it will take you to a grants database where you can search for help based on occupation, religion, area you live in etc. etc. The help is free, although each fund has its own rules for qualification.

HTH and good luck with the job search