Advice for a friend

thorsoak

I was speaking to a friend last evening - and her situation is this:-

She is 57 years of age, divorced (no children) and is a trained legal secretary and lives in Outer London. Apart from a 6 month break when she married in the 1980s and a 3 month period in 2002, she has worked continually and had a full NI contribution record until she was made redundant in October 2008, and has been unable to find work since then and signed on, receiving contributions-based JSA for 6 months and has received ESA (I think) since then at the basic rate.

She had a mortgage, 2nd mortgage, credit & store cards which until she was made redundant she was able to afford on her salary (2nd mortgage taken out when she divorced her husband and bought him out of the house). Obviously she found it difficult to pay these after redundancy and the insurances paying these stopped after 1 year, so she was getting into debt and there were inordinate delays before the benefit office started to pay the interest portion of her mortgage only (they would not pay then 2nd mortgage). She was attempting to sell her house - not a good time obviously but the 2nd mortgagees (Capital One) took her to court for possession - and were granted possession by end of January 2010 had the house not been sold by then. Fortunately, a buyer was found - albeit at a lot lower price than she'd hoped for, and she has sold her house, paid off all her debts and has moved into rented accommodation and has been left with a substantial amount of capital, and she hopes that once she can get back to work, she could use this as a deposit on another property but will live on it until she can get a job.

Obviously she is no longer able to claim ESA, and has informed the benefits office of her change of situation - but needs to keep signing on in order to maintain her NI record. However the Job Centre are now insisting that she goes on a 13 week "re-training/back to work course" or these contributions will not be maintained and she will not be able to claim any benefits at all in the future!!! She says why on earth could they not have offered her this last year - she might have been able to hold onto her home

I think that she will already have made sufficient NI contributions - 35+ years - and that she does not have to make any more ... am I correct?

Mods - I'm posting this on both the Employment/Jobseeking and Benefits Board because I'm not sure which is the relevent one - please delete as necessary!





I would add that she has been active in trying to get work, and does voluntary work for Help the Aged to try and keep her CV active.