Voluntary redundancy + J'seekers allowance

loox

Hoping for some advice from you clued up people!
I took VR in November 2009 and was told by direct gov that I could claim jobseekers allowance. I explianed from the off-set that I had taken Voluntary Redundancy and they still said it was fine to claim.
I really wanted to register for jobseekers allowance to get discount on a course I wanted to do. The savings for the course are about £780 if you are on JS allowance. I have been signing on since beginning of Feb, but had a letter about 1 month ago saying that as I left my job voluntarily I may not be entitiled to JS allowance. I worked for a v large airline which is going through major cost-cutting and my job was at risk. I wrote to job seeker people and explained all of this and have had no response. I continue to sign every 2 weeks. I am expecting to get a letter any minute now saying they want the money that I have received to date paying back!!:eek:
Does anyone have a similar experience or any info that may help?
Much appreciated!

amanda40

My DH accepted VR in December from large IT Contractor- he has claimed Conts based JSA since - we were told whether redundancy is voluntary or not makes no difference as it is still redundancy.

dampsquib

loox wrote: »

I took VR in November 2009

As long as it was "redundancy" you volunteered for, you should be OK for Jobseekers. If however you volunteered for some other type of severance scheme, you may not be entitled to claim Jobseekers for a while.
This should be easy to clarify, do you have a letter from the company which mentions the "R" word.
When my company made people redundant in 2008, and some volunteered to go, a Jobseekers roadshow came to our works and we were told that even volunteers would be entitled to Jobseekers from Day 1.

heather8

I have taken vol redundancy and have a letter from my employer saying so. I have been able to claim contributions based JSA.