Shall i take the money?

dubburke

I am a civil servant in N.Ireland, any many bases are closing here due to "normalisation", my location has a ? next to it, and we are unsure of our future.
Today it was annouced that civil servants that are made redundant between 1st August 2006 and 31st December 2008 will recieve a one off payment of £14000 (taxable) and whatever my pension lump sum will be (approx £39000) so in total after tax i should recieve £47000 and a preserved pension until i am 60, its a voluntary redundancy scheme but with compulsory terms, does this mean i will be able to claim benefits until i get myself another job? or will i just have to eat away at my lump sum?My gross annual salary is £21000 gross.
What would you do?

jobbingmusician

It partly depends how old you are. If you're fairly young, I would take the money and run!!!!

DO you have any ideas for self-employment? - cos that would be a great lump sum to set you up to work for yourself.......:beer:

dubburke

I am 38 and have no real qualifications as was in the Army before the civil service job, would love to be self employed, but in what? as i have no qualifications as such.
The wife has a part time job earning approx £8k a year i also have 2 kids and a mortgage repayment of £500 month, so as you see the lump sum wont last too long without money coming in, thats why i need to know if i can claim any benefits, as if i leave it will be on compulsory terms.

Deluks

Use a large chunk of that to pay off some of your mortgage, if possible. A mortgage is one hell of an expensive loan, and the quicker it's paid the less interest you'll pay on it overall.*

Or invest in a buy to let property.

Don't just stick it in a bank account and live off of it, it will be gone in a few years and you'll have nothing worthwhile to show for it.

*I have never actually had a mortgage (yet) but that's what I would do with the cash anyway.

hjb123

I would take the money and look for another job. Depending on what job you have done you should manage to find another job. Have you tried putting your details (after redundancy) into https://www.entitledto.co.uk

Alleycat

In my workings out £47000 would be equivalent to roughly 2.5 years of your current salary. That is a pretty good payout and would definately last a hell of a long time!!

Personally I would take the voluntary redundancy and start looking for a new job as soon as you are given notice of when you are required to leave. Depending on what the job market is like where you are, I would have thought it wouldn't take 2.5 years to find another job with a decent salary.

I don't know if redundancy and pension payouts would affect your ability to claim JSA though, someone with more knowledge will be able to advise I am sure.

dubburke

Thanks for the replies, its hard to know what to do, but i will have to think long and hard before jumping in feet first, i think the money is very tempting, as when would you ever have that much cash in your hand witout selling your house!!
On the other hand the money i will recieve can only go up if i dont take it now, the only cash i might miss out on is the £14k one off payment as the cut off date is 31st dec 08.

hjb123

If my sister gets made redundant the money that she would get is equal to 9 months pay so I think your offer sounds pretty good!

dubburke

It works out as follows:
1 months pay for each year served
1 months pay for every year served over 5 years
1 months pay for every year served over the age of 35
And then the formula, which off the top of my head i cant think of!!
But i am seriously tempted, even if the job i get isnt as well paid, i am sure we will be bumped up a bit with working tax credits.

TAZ

i think you can safely say that with a payout that large you will not be able to claim any benefits.
if it were me i would try to get another job and put the money in a high interest account that way you have the way you still have a wage to live off and the interest for treats and the lump sum as and when you want to buy something big ie a villa abroad

dubburke

Sounds a good plan Taz!