Redundancy Pregnany Jobseekers allowance Mortgage Protection Policy

purplelila-2007

Hello everyone

I'm new here , and desperately need some advice .

We recently bought our first house and moved in at the beggining of March, and on the day of completion I took out a mortgage protection policy . I've held this for over a month now , and can't claim make a claim in 120 days, and to be eligible I need to be claiming job seekers allowance.

At work they'll start to implement a new system and I think that will mean cut backs ,restructuring , and redundancies. At this stage nothing's been announced officially. And it could be sometime before anything happens.

I've just found out I'm pregnant and as I'm the main earner we won't be able to survive financially if I was redundant.

If I was made redundant on maternity leave I would have to look for a job asap. Would someone be able to tell me whether I would be eligible to claim job seekers ?

If I claim job seekers would I have to pay back the maternity pay ?(my company only does SMP)

If I was redunant I would have to claim on my mortgage protection policy - would they pay out if I had been on maternity leave?

I'm really confused , and no one has asked questions relating to redundancy / maternity and how the mortgage protection policy works.

I'm aware that if made redundant on maternity leave , and looking for a new job if I can't claim job seekers allowance I wouldnt be able to claim on the policy . I'm just scared of losing my home!
We have savings that could see us through about 5 months if we couldnt claim on the policy . But I'm really scared if made redundant I wouldnt be able to get another job within that time.
Can someone please help .

inahighrise

First of all - congratulations on your pregnancy! I don't know anything about maternity pay or benefits but having been through many, many, many redundancy situations myself I would say that...

...secondly, since your company has not formally announced a redundancy situation - and we don't know how big your employer is, so therefore how they will have to handle redundancies (ie for companies with a certain number of potential posts at risk they have to go through consultation etc etc) - it's difficult to advise anything other than 'don't panic'. Perhaps you could post this info for a start?

purplelila-2007

The company I work for is a large multi national , not sure how many employees.
The department I work in with along with myself there are 9 of us in total doing the admin.

inahighrise

I can only speak for having worked for a large organisation myself (1200 employees) that when redundancy comes they generally have to get rid of more than 20 employees, simply because the redundancy exercise is not worth it if you're only talking small numbers.

Consequently, if more than 20 they have to go through consultation with unions etc first. Also, ime, they higher levels of management are looked at first at that's usually where the cost savings are to be made, and the 'surplus' is so to speak.

Anyway that's just a bit about an actual redundancy situation - you are not in this position yet, so please don't worry too much.

purplelila-2007

Thanks I can't help but panic , this will have been the second redundancy situation in as many years. And this time round I have so much more to lose!

magicgirl

SMP does not have to be paid back. If they offer you anything over smp, that may be needed to be paid but if you are made redundant while on mat leave, you would not pay anything back. your smp would continue even after your redundancy date until it is due to stop (39 weeks payment)