Benefits on redundancy

trumpton

I am asking this on behalf of some friends. They have gone through the MSE benefits calculator but are still unsure. They seem to think that they will not qualify for any tax credits and will get only JSA to live on.

Current salary £55k, wife is housewife, 2 children under 16, receive only child benefit and lowest Child Tax Credit (£210?), mortgage of c£50k, savings of around £20k. possible redundancy in Dec/January.

What will they be able to claim when he is made redundant? He will get contribution based JSA for 26 weeks I think - single rate as his wife is not actively seeking work? No help with Council Tax as savings are too high, I assume.

Also, would it be better to pay down the mortgage now with their savings? Some of the savings are in the childrens names, which I assume will count as the parents' savings for benefits claims purposes.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

edit: I have just gone through the governments own Child Tax Credit calculator and I get a figure of £2612 per anum. Does this sound more likely? That plus the JSA gives an income of £111 a week (plus child benefit).

[Deleted User]

alot of what might be avaliable may be based on the pay off he gets.