Looks like I might need benefits

TonyC

Hi All,

As like a lot of people there are lots of rumours around my place of work about rendundancy etc. Thinking the worse (after being in this position before) I thought I would start looking at what benefits I could claim. I am not wanting to claim as I am hoping, I am not up for the chop or I find a new job soon.

So my family circummstance are:

• I have been with my current company for almost 6 years (hoping to get to 6 before this all happens).
• I earn roughly 36k a year.
• We have 4 kids and my wife works around 20 hours a week earning roughly 12k a year.
• We have childcare costs of around £280 per week.
• Not much in savings to shout about.
• I am also on a DMP to the tune of around 30k.

So as part of my fact finding I have been through the direct gov benefits advisor as if I had just been made redundant, but it still left me confused a little. My understandig so far is:

JSA - I think so, but not sure
HB - Not sure
council tax benefit - probably, but again not sure to what level.

Can anyone help out with pointing me in the direction of what level help I might possibly expect if everything goes wrong! Are there any other benefits I dont know about that I can add to the list?

Thanks in advance,

Tony

Oldernotwiser

TonyC wrote: »

Hi All,

As like a lot of people there are lots of rumours around my place of work about rendundancy etc. Thinking the worse (after being in this position before) I thought I would start looking at what benefits I could claim. I am not wanting to claim as I am hoping, I am not up for the chop or I find a new job soon.

So my family circummstance are:

• I have been with my current company for almost 6 years (hoping to get to 6 before this all happens).
• I earn roughly 36k a year.
• We have 4 kids and my wife works around 20 hours a week earning roughly 12k a year.
• We have childcare costs of around £280 per week.
• Not much in savings to shout about.
• I am also on a DMP to the tune of around 30k.

So as part of my fact finding I have been through the direct gov benefits advisor as if I had just been made redundant, but it still left me confused a little. My understandig so far is:

JSA - I think so, but not sure
HB - Not sure
council tax benefit - probably, but again not sure to what level.

Can anyone help out with pointing me in the direction of what level help I might possibly expect if everything goes wrong! Are there any other benefits I dont know about that I can add to the list?

Thanks in advance,

Tony

You would certainly be able to get contributions based JSA for 6 months. Do you claim Tax Credits at the moment and do you own or rent your home?

Debts aren't taken into account for assessing benefit levels, by the way.

dmg24

You would be best to start at www.entitledto.co.uk for an estimate of your entitlement.

TonyC

Thanks for the quick replies,

We do claim Tax Credits at the moment for childcare and yes 'we own' or I should say the bank owns it.

Do you know much JSA allowance is? As the direct gov doesnt seem to have it on there just.

Thanks

Tony

Indie_Kid

JSA for someone over 25 is roughly £65 per week,

Hammyman

Contributions based JSA for yourself for 6 months. Tax Credits would increase quite a bit whilst you were on Cont Based JSA. Once the Contributions based ends, you'd go onto income based but would get nothing because of your wife's income and tax credits BUT another phone call to tax credits due to change of circumstance would see those increase again.

You will not be able to claim childcare costs because you wouldn't be working so you'd lose that part of the Tax Credits.

You'll not starve but there will be a fair drop in income although tax credits in combination with reduced childcare and travel to work expenses will soften the blow.

mitchaa

If you are being told that there is a likelihood of you being made redundant then why did you think about what benefits you would be entitled to first? Surely the benefits system is a last resort? If it were me, I'd have a new job role by the time my old one had finished. During the notice period, I'd be doing my best to secure employment. Benefits would only come into play if there was absolutely nothing available to me.

You appear to be the exact opposite? Serve out your notice period and then assign yourself to the scrapheap of unemployment? No mention of job seeking whilst in your notice period which seems strange to me.

As to your question, no, you will not get housing benefit (Or ISMI). Your wife is working.

DX2

mitchaa nothing wrong with being prepared, or did you bypass the scouts when you were a wee boy.

Indie_Kid

DX2 wrote: »

mitchaa nothing wrong with being prepared, or did you bypass the scouts when you were a wee boy.

Surely, by looking at other jobs, you are being prepared?

Person_one

mitchaa wrote: »

If you are being told that there is a likelihood of you being made redundant then why did you think about what benefits you would be entitled to first? Surely the benefits system is a last resort? If it were me, I'd have a new job role by the time my old one had finished. During the notice period, I'd be doing my best to secure employment. Benefits would only come into play if there was absolutely nothing available to me.

You appear to be the exact opposite? Serve out your notice period and then assign yourself to the scrapheap of unemployment? No mention of job seeking whilst in your notice period which seems strange to me.

As to your question, no, you will not get housing benefit (Or ISMI). Your wife is working.

:rotfl:

I wish it worked like that!

From the OP: "I am not wanting to claim as I am hoping, I am not up for the chop or I find a new job soon."

atrixblue.-MFR-.

mitchaa wrote: »

If you are being told that there is a likelihood of you being made redundant then why did you think about what benefits you would be entitled to first? Surely the benefits system is a last resort? If it were me, I'd have a new job role by the time my old one had finished. During the notice period, I'd be doing my best to secure employment. Benefits would only come into play if there was absolutely nothing available to me.

You appear to be the exact opposite? Serve out your notice period and then assign yourself to the scrapheap of unemployment? No mention of job seeking whilst in your notice period which seems strange to me.

As to your question, no, you will not get housing benefit (Or ISMI). Your wife is working.

The OP is not you, The OP is researching to be prepared for the worse end, im sure the OP doesn want to assign themselfs scrapheap. The OP may be in a specialist job that they have trained and studied for, so job hunting the same job type could be difficult especially in this economic climate. If you have concerns that redundancies are on the cards in your work place due to "talks" around the work place, you may want to highlight this with your manager, it maybe that someone has been sacked and someone else has miss interpretated that as the company is trouble and laying off, your manager managing director should be alerted of such rumours as it busts moral in the works place, perhaps they can reassure or if the company is in trouble perhaps discuss it at a meating.

the first thing that usually happens is voluntary redundancy is announced, after all the temps have been let go after a period of time, perminant part timers get given overtime to occupy the workload. if something like this is happening you should seek out your union rep for advice (if your in a union) and consult your manager. Its not sweet being on benefits (not to put you off claiming if the time comes) and with 12k and some tax credits coming in youll find it a very big stuggle to support 4 children a mortgage, car, debts etc.

if the company is scetcthy with what is really going on i would seek job hunting advice, benefits advice, mortgage advice. try and pay off low end debts, to free up cash if things go wrong at work.