Can you claim jobseekers if you take voluntary redundancy?

completelyspent

Ag3nt wrote: »

Neil, think the thing is, £65 or whatever the amount maybe is better than nothing.

How many people including myself would see it is, I am better to take the £65 rather than not, as there is plenty of people about the place who do claim such benefits when there is no reason at all for them not having a job (but i guess that arguement is for another time )

Those who have worked for many years are definitely entitled to it regardless of the amount, as they've put money in the kitty for the lazy for years

Also, in addition to the money you receive, you get your national insurance stamp paid. This is really important as it counts to your state pension qualification.

getmore4less

Ag3nt wrote: »

a collegue is again just off the phone with the JSA Offices.

They have advised.

Once your made redundant regardless of the amount of settlement your given, you will automatically receive JSA and also be eligable to apply (but may not be successful) in claiming housing benefits.

Regarding the 6000 Capital, they said, this does not take effect right away, they re-access your situation after 6 months and if you have a capital at that time of more than 6000, then they reduce your JSA by £1 for every £500 capital you have over £6000.

hopefully this has helped someone or if this is incorrect and someone can advise different please do correct me. Many thanks.

They are probably referring to the 6 months of contributions based JSA which is not automatic, but will be for most people that have been working for at least 2 years..

anna42hmr

as completlyspent has posted, another major factor to consider is claiming to ensure your state pension credits etc are kept up (stamp duty)

i recently went through this after redundancy and signed on for a couple of months whilst looking for my current job (after being made redundant from a company i had been with for nearly 9 years)

there is 2 types of job seekers allowance (contributory and means tested)

if you have paid in enough National Insurance over the previous two years, then you are entitled to contributory JSA, this lasts for aprox 6 months, think its 26 weeks)

after the 6 months then they will then check your financial status and see if you are entitled to means tested JSA. at the time i was speaking to them, savings under £6,000 were not taken into account, savings between 6-16k were taken into account and the level of jsa you would be entitled to would be on a sliding scale (ie more savings = less JSA) over 16K savings then no means tested jsa is payable.

I beleive that if you have not paid in enough National Insurance over the previous 2 years, then they look to see if you are able to go onto means tested jsa straight away.

stevsand

Ag3nt wrote: »

Someone within my office had recently contacting the JSA offices and they adviced of a £6000 capital.

If you had more than £6000 then you would not be able to claim JSA, but I assume you can just spend some of your Redundancy on paying off other debts and then claim regardless. They also had said it did not matter if you where Voluntary or not, you would still be entitled to JSA.

Wrong,you are entitled to jobseekers straight away.

real1314

There's quite of lot of duff info and nearly correct stuff on this thread.


1. Genuine Redundancy in itself (voluntary or compulsory) does not affect entitlement to JSA in any way. Compromise agreements may be subject to investigation.

2. If you have paid sufficient NI contributions (paying a contribution in the previous 2 tax years - not an exact answer, but..), you would normally receive Contributory JSA which is not means tested against Savings. This can be paid for up to 6 months.

3. If you have not paid enough contributions you would be assesed for JSA Income based (means tested) which takes account of any partner's income, capital (over £6k) and many other factors.

4. When you sign on you get your NI stamp covered; not Stamp Duty (I think this is the only flaw in your post anna42hmr, and it's only terminology ;-0)

burnoutbabe

in addition, you can only claim JSA if YOU ARE SEEKING WORK.

so I am not claiming, after taking voluntary redudancy, as I am not job hunting at all. once i decide i want to, and start applying, then you can claim.

You also lose any JSA if you earn any money from other sources (over £5) so any casual type job you take on means you wouldn;t be able to claim that week. As i do focus groups that pay £50 to £100 every few weeks, it would be very impractical to keep claiming and getting zero some weeks and £65 others.