Redundancy & JSA

laptop80

Made redundant last Friday as the company I'd been employed by for several years went bust. Had insolvency practitioners in and completed the forms for redundancy & compensatory notice pay etc, which I'm now waiting for.

Although it's my understanding that tax and NI will be deducted from my compensatory notice pay, I spoke to a Job Centre advisor who said I should claim anyway and the money I get will be deducted from any compensatory notice - this seems like a colossal waste of time, but I guess that's DWP bureaucracy for you.

The advisor also said that because my partner does not work many hours a week it would be the income-based JSA, even though I would qualify for contribution-based, and that I should apply online, which I've now done.

The form was a bit of a ballache to be honest, but it also tells me I need to bring all manner of paperwork with me to the JSA interview (e.g. 2 forms of ID for me and my partner, mortgage statements, pay slips, bank and savings statements and more).

Would all this be necessary for contribution-based JSA? I'm unlikely to be unemployed for much longer than the period of my compensatory notice and I find it a bit offensive that I'm forced to do all this hoop-jumping for money that they are deducting from my taxable notice pay anyway. Was the advisor correct that I should be claiming income-based JSA from the off?

I've even seen some people saying that a JSA claim can't be progressed until the compensatory notice period is finished anyway, though I thought I should claim to be on the safe side for the National Insurance credits (also someone said that the JSA is automatically deducted from your notice pay on the presumption that you will be claiming it).

zzzLazyDaisy

You definitely need to claim JSA as the RPS will deduct it from your notice pay, whether you claim it or not.

As far as income based JSA is concerned, if you are entitled to it, you probably should claim it as being a means tested benefit it is also a passport to other benefits such as LHA (if you are privately renting) Mortgage interest relief (if you have a mortgage) and Council tax benefit.

You *may* be entitled to these benefits on contribution based JSA but that is not guaranteed, and you have a load of form filling to do, whereas you automatically qualify if you are on means tested JSA (though you do still have to apply). Having said that, my own experience is that the job centre staff are often recommend applying for means tested JSA when it is fairly clear from your circumstances (income/savings) that you won't qualify anyway, in which case it is a pointless pain.

So I'd suggest that you log onto the turn2us website and input yours and your wife's details. This will give you an idea what benefits you will be entitled to, and at least then you will know whether it is in fact worth filling in the forms.

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

laptop80

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

You definitely need to claim JSA as the RPS will deduct it from your notice pay, whether you claim it or not.

As far as income based JSA is concerned, if you are entitled to it, you probably should claim it as being a means tested benefit it is also a passport to other benefits such as LHA (if you are privately renting) Mortgage interest relief (if you have a mortgage) and Council tax benefit.

You *may* be entitled to these benefits on contribution based JSA but that is not guaranteed, and you have a load of form filling to do, whereas you automatically qualify if you are on means tested JSA (though you do still have to apply). Having said that, my own experience is that the job centre staff are often recommend applying for means tested JSA when it is fairly clear from your circumstances (income/savings) that you won't qualify anyway, in which case it is a pointless pain.

So I'd suggest that you log onto the turn2us website and input yours and your wife's details. This will give you an idea what benefits you will be entitled to, and at least then you will know whether it is in fact worth filling in the forms.

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

Thanks for the advice - appreciated.