Just been made redundant - a few Q's..

GEEGEE8

Hi there,

Just been sent home from work when the receivers turned up to close down the shop that I work in.

So, any help would be great.

I live on my own, private rented accomodation, no kids.

I have an insurance policy for redundancy that is £600 a month.

I need to register at the job centre on monday.

Any ideas on the following:

Will my insurance stop me getting housing benefit or any other benefits?

What other help can I get?

What is the going rate for Job seekers allowance, the insurance company said I can still claim this on top of the insurance?

Any help would be most appreciated!

GEEGEE8

bump.. anyone?

Ms_Brush

May be able to help - same thing happened to my Dad on Tuesday.

You should be entitled to redundancy money if you have worked there for more than 2 years, see calculators.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/redundancy.dsb - the government site

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/commercial/calculator/ - the Times (makes things clearer and shows in graph format as well)

And a table showing the number of weeks due based on age and years of service....
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@employ/documents/digitalasset/dg_177260.pdf

You may also be able to claim for payment in lieu of notice - up to maximum of 12 weeks, calculated on weekly pay rate (as above).

You can also claim any unpaid wages and outstanding holiday pay, which is taxable.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/redundancy-help

It’s not just redundancy pay
If you’re owed wages or holiday pay from a firm that’s gone bust, you can also claim the following from the National Insurance Fund via the insolvency practitioner. Yet unlike redundancy pay, this is taxed and uses the same ‘maximum’ rule of no more than £380 a week.

• Wages. Up to eight weeks unpaid wages can be claimed
• Holiday pay. Up to six weeks unpaid wages can be claimed
• Compensatory notice pay. One week’s pay after one calendar month's service, and then one week’s pay per year of service up to a maximum of twelve weeks

Any further holiday pay and wages owed will be billed as 'preferential debt' which means that they’ll be paid before other debts if there’s enough money when the eventual assets of your employer are totted up and divided out.
How to claim
To apply for Statutory Redundancy Pay, complete the RP1 form on the Insolvency Service website and send it back to the practitioner dealing with your company’s insolvency. It usually takes about three to six weeks for you to receive your payment.
If you’ve doubts about the way your employer may have calculated your statutory redundancy pay call the Redundancy Payments Helpline on 0845 1450 004.

3) The Insolvency Service is who you will need to be dealing with, probably via the Liquidators, and they will have either already given you details or will post them to you in the next few days.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/DG_10012040

This is a useful booklet, that they might have already given you
http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/pdfs/guidanceleafletspdf/guideforemployees.pdf

The insolvency practitioner dealing with your ex-employer will tell you what claims you can make.
You can also call the Redundancy Payments Helpline for advice.
If you are dismissed in the course of a transfer of the business and the reason for the dismissal
is genuine redundancy, we can pay you a redundancy payment and a notice payment. However,
if the reason for the dismissal is the transfer itself, this is normally treated as unfair dismissal and
not redundancy. You may be able to claim compensation for unfair dismissal from the new owner.
You may have to apply to an employment tribunal to deal with any dispute. There are different
time limits for applying, but if you apply within 3 months of your dismissal, you should not be out
of time.
You can get further information on this subject from the BIS website under Employment Matters.
ACAS can also give advice on this subject. See Annex 3 for details."

Regarding your insurance:

You should be able to sign on immediately and start the ball rolling for job seekers allowance, which I believe will be the contributions based JSA. I think that this is around £65 per week and you have to go to the job centre to sign on. You should get this regardless (if you can bear the perils of the system...)

If you have no other income you should also be able to claim income support, which (unless its changed) will allow for housing benefit and other benefits to be claimed. Think is, you will need to confirm this, but I would think that when your insurance is taken into account this would be classified as "income", therefore wont be entitled to the benefits.

Hope that helps a little bit.

GEEGEE8

Thanks so much
I was there for 18 months, so not redundancy.
The receivers gave us the form for the loss of earnings, so I'll post that back today and keep my fingers crossed.
I'm a bit gutted that I'll probably lose out because I have insurance, but I will have to see, hopefully it will work out better in the end.

My insurance is for £600 a month, maximum of 12 months.

markandkate

You need to check that your insurance will pay up immediately as there is sometimes a waiting period.

Any monies you get from such a plan will be taken into account as income when trying to claim HB/CTB. You do not have to go to the Job Centre yet you can start the claim off by telephone. It would be useful to keep copies of all letters regarding the liquiation of the company to give to your insurers and Job Centre.

GEEGEE8

I rang insurance on friday when I got home, and they said the plan starts when I register at the job centre, and she has logged my call and will send the forms out.
I have to wait 30 days for the insurance to kick in, so I'm already stuck for bills at the end of the month. Hopefully job centre will advise me and get it sorted quickly, and I'll report back here for any more help once I return.
I have a letter that the people dealing with the administration gave to me to advise that they have taken over as administrators of the company. I will just take it all with me and hope for the best really.
My rent is £325 a month, any idea if I have to pay council tax still?