being made redundant am i entitled to any benefits?

emmamc1976

After 8 years of service i am being made redundant from my current role. This worries me because I have quite a specialist role and roles of this kind are very few and far between, coupled with the fact that I currently work part time so i can look after my young son which im expecting ill have give up when looking for another role :'( I genuinely expect that I could be looking up to 12 months before i find and get something i can use my particular skill set in.

Ive never claimed any benefits (except child benefit) in my life and have no idea where to start or what im entitled too? My husband works 40 hrs a week and earns £53k and we receive no additional income or help from any other area (we are both in our late 30's). Would I (we) be entitled to any benefits whilst I am looking for alternative employment?

2 years ago we took out a 2nd mortgage to buy a small bungalow for my husbands widowed father (we took out a "mortgage for a dependant relative" mortgage package), the property is valued at £70k but my father in law pays the mortgage repayments so we dont charge any rent or make any income on this property, he paid the deposit and it was only purchased in our name because he was too old to get a mortgage and he needed to be nearer us as he was alone and is in his very golden years. Will the fact that the bungalow mortgage is in my husbands name mean that it will be considered as "savings" or "income"?

The redundancy situation is hard enough to get my head around but now considering benefit entitlements is really making my head spin. Anyone got any advise for me :S

Thanks

McKneff

If you are not going to be job seeking straight away then no, you will not be able to claim JSA.

If you are going to be job seeking you will get JSA for 6 months.

After which it will be income based JSA, which you will not be able to claim because of your OHs income.

You could of course start charging rent on the other property that is owned to generate some income.

And really, just to point out, your father in law is not actually paying the mortgage, you are paying the mortgage,
your father in laws contribution is rent and you pay it towards the mortgage becuase the mortgage is in your name.

Be careful on this one, you should, if renting a property out, be complying with all landlord responsibilites, because that is what you are, gas safety certificates etc.

emmamc1976

McKneff wrote: »

If you are not going to be job seeking straight away then no, you will not be able to claim JSA.

If you are going to be job seeking you will get JSA for 6 months.

After which it will be income based JSA, which you will not be able to claim because of your OHs income.

You could of course start charging rent on the other property that is owned to generate some income.

And really, just to point out, your father in law is not actually paying the mortgage, you are paying the mortgage,
your father in laws contribution is rent and you pay it towards the mortgage becuase the mortgage is in your name.

Be careful on this one, you should, if renting a property out, be complying with all landlord responsibilites, because that is what you are, gas safety certificates etc.

Thank you McKneff, yes we "pay" the mortgage but my FIL's "rent" exactly covers the mortgage payments and we do not make any additional money on this. We could not charge him any additional rent as we agreed when we "purchased" the bungalow for him that he would only pay the cost of the mortgage repayments and interest rises as a result of that and his budget does not allow for extra payments. Although we are technically landlords, our tenant is not faceless, he is our family and we are the only family he has, so unfortunately charging additional rent is not an option. Thansk for pointing out out "landlord" responsibilities, we were very aware of that when looking for property for him and purposefully chose a local property that is in a managed retirement complex as the annual checks are carried under the monthly service charge which my FIL also pays. Thanks for the advise about benefits, it would appear that as I feared because my husband earns the salary he does, im not entitled to anything :'( I tried using the MSE benefits checker but didnt find it that easy to use as it asks about my salary and seemed to get confused over my husbands gross pension contributions?? Guess i just gotta find my local council one stop shop and see what they think. Thanks anyway. Em

dundeediva

Don't take this the wrong way but although it would take 12 months to potentially find a job in your current area of expertise, can you maybe look for something as a stop-gap in the meantime? Even a part time job in a local shop kind of thing? The reason why I'm asking is if you get JSA you may be sanctioned if only looking for jobs in one area of the jobs market. They expect you to look for ANY job that you can get. I don't know anything about the mortgage situation but wish you the best of luck with whatever happens x

emmamc1976

dundeediva wrote: »

Don't take this the wrong way but although it would take 12 months to potentially find a job in your current area of expertise, can you maybe look for something as a stop-gap in the meantime? Even a part time job in a local shop kind of thing? The reason why I'm asking is if you get JSA you may be sanctioned if only looking for jobs in one area of the jobs market. They expect you to look for ANY job that you can get. I don't know anything about the mortgage situation but wish you the best of luck with whatever happens x

Thank you Dundeediva, you are probably right i will have to find something as a stop gap but its all a circle downwards isnt it, i find something (like shop work) while looking for another job and my skills get diluted on my CV. Whichever way i look at it, im in for a [EMAIL="!!!!py"]!!!!py[/EMAIL] 12 months ( Just heard that McDonalds are recuiting more people, from a Strategic Analyst to a burger flipper - great (no offense to burger flippers, they do a stirling job!)

Firefox1975

try not to get too disheartened.

Yes, it isn't fair, but then at least you have two arms and legs etc.

Many of us have not advanced in either salary or job skills for the last 5 years (and that's after being cast off by companies when the times were good and salaries were rising and having to get a job to live) so unfortunately, speaking from experience, the sooner you accept how bad it is the less you will get demoralised.

On the other hand - the title Strategic Analyst could mean a myriad of things within different sectors - im guessing you have a financial qualification?

there are still financial jobs there - just don't expect too much in a new role with little experience of a new company.

£53k a year means (I hope) that you will not worry about food or clothing in the near future!:)

HB58

"as I feared because my husband earns the salary he does, im not entitled to anything"

You will be entitled to 6 months contributary JSA providing i) that you are actually looking for work and ii) that you have made sufficient NI contributions in the past 2-3 years.