Redundancy and JSA

Road_Hog

My wife is being made redundant. Well, technically she took voluntary redundancy, but she was going to be made redundant, as she'd had the 'your job is at risk' letter whilst they went through the consultation process.


The redundancy money is below the £16K threshold. She is employed up until the end of January (i.e. lieu of notice) but will be finishing this side of Christmas.


When would she be entitled to claim for JSA?

Neelienew

She can claim 26 weeks Contribution based JSA from the end of January when the job officially ends. She will have to be actively looking for work.

lisyloo

JSA is a comlpete nightmare.
If she has a choice and wants to retain some self-esteem then I'd say don't claim it.
The people at the job center had no idea what my DH did (bid manager). He was working really hard to find a job but some of the activities he did e.g. networking with a CEO didn't "count" according to the job center.
They have a list of things you have to do (like apply for jobs via their website) even if you've applied elsewhere or it's better for you to use a different website. You have to use their because it's counts your applications.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe that people clamiing benefits from tax payers have a duty to look for work (as my OH did very single way), but they way they went about assessing it, and the way they made him feel was soul destroying.
If you can afford and you care about your wife then I really wouldn't bother.

Road_Hog

Neelienew wrote: »

She can claim 26 weeks Contribution based JSA from the end of January when the job officially ends. She will have to be actively looking for work.

When should she put in a claim? beginning of January or wait until the 31st of January.

lisyloo wrote: »

JSA is a comlpete nightmare.
If she has a choice and wants to retain some self-esteem then I'd say don't claim it.

yes, I probably agree with this sentiment. However, I will be a backstop just to be sure. Hopefully she will have some temp work and it won't be needed.


Neither of us has claimed dole (as it was then called) for about 30 years and I realise that the whole experience has changed, so I can't even advise her on the situation.

anamenottaken

Road_Hog wrote: »

My wife is being made redundant. Well, technically she took voluntary redundancy, but she was going to be made redundant, as she'd had the 'your job is at risk' letter whilst they went through the consultation process.


The redundancy money is below the £16K threshold. She is employed up until the end of January (i.e. lieu of notice) but will be finishing this side of Christmas.


When would she be entitled to claim for JSA?

If she is employed until the end of January, I'm not sure what "lieu of notice is. If she is employed until the end of January but is not required to turn up for work, then she is on gardening leave and not entitled to JSA for January because she is employed.

If instead, she is being paid in lieu of receiving notice to the end of January, then she can put in a claim for JSA as soon as she is no longer employed.

Road_Hog

anamenottaken wrote: »

If she is employed until the end of January, I'm not sure what "lieu of notice is. If she is employed until the end of January but is not required to turn up for work, then she is on gardening leave and not entitled to JSA for January because she is employed.

If instead, she is being paid in lieu of receiving notice to the end of January, then she can put in a claim for JSA as soon as she is no longer employed.

Is that not the same thing? She has been made redundant, she is due 8 weeks notice. She has been given notice this month, but has been told that her employment (i.e. expected to come into the office) finishes Christmas Eve.

p00hsticks

Road_Hog wrote: »

Is that not the same thing? She has been made redundant, she is due 8 weeks notice. She has been given notice this month, but has been told that her employment (i.e. expected to come into the office) finishes Christmas Eve.

No - there is a difference between being told you don't need to come into the office during the period your notice is being served ('gardening leave') and being paid in lieu of notice.

In the former case, her contractual leaving date would be in eight weeks time. In the latter, on Christmas Eve.

She can only apply for JSA from the point at which she has officially left the company, so you need to get her to clarify when this is.

Road_Hog

p00hsticks wrote: »

No - there is a difference between being told you don't need to come into the office during the period your notice is being served ('gardening leave') and being paid in lieu of notice.

In the former case, her contractual leaving date would be in eight weeks time. In the latter, on Christmas Eve.

She can only apply for JSA from the point at which she has officially left the company, so you need to get her to clarify when this is.

Okay, she is free to start any other employment from lunchtime Christmas Eve - So I would assume that that means it is lieu of notice then.

bigadaj

Just to show the other side of the coin I've had no problems with jsa and the job centre. I took a significant payoff for voluntary redundancy, completed the forms online that night and had a meeting the following week. My first signing on was last week and the only issue I had was general confusion as the system has changed in the last few weeks, so even the staff had a differ et interpretation of what was required.

Everyone was perfectly pleasant and agin because I do a technical job they don't really know what to help with, I ended up dictating much of the form filling and the guy inputted it.

The job search website is ok and a lot of agencies seem to list there as it's free.

My work terminated at the end of November, so I applied for jsa immediately and the only problem I had was remembering to give them bank details. Ironically I still have my car and phone until the end of January, didn't really think of this in terms of jsa though did ironically discuss the fact I could be working for a competitor whilst using their car and phone!

auldblerk

bigadaj wrote: »

Just to show the other side of the coin I've had no problems with jsa and the job centre. I took a significant payoff for voluntary redundancy, completed the forms online that night and had a meeting the following week. My first signing on was last week and the only issue I had was general confusion as the system has changed in the last few weeks, so even the staff had a differ et interpretation of what was required.

Everyone was perfectly pleasant and agin because I do a technical job they don't really know what to help with, I ended up dictating much of the form filling and the guy inputted it.

The job search website is ok and a lot of agencies seem to list there as it's free.

My work terminated at the end of November, so I applied for jsa immediately and the only problem I had was remembering to give them bank details. Ironically I still have my car and phone until the end of January, didn't really think of this in terms of jsa though did ironically discuss the fact I could be working for a competitor whilst using their car and phone!

Very similar experience, I was reluctant to claim but was advised to due to national insurance contributions, read some real bad horror stories on here but the staff at my JC have been fantastic.
The only problem I've had is with housing benefit; it doesn't automatically apply with the JSA application as it states it does.

pmlindyloo

Your wife should apply for contribution based JSA as soon as she finishes work (ie, Christmas eve)


This can be done online.


If there is a problem about when the JSA starts they will sort it out. Just best to get the claim in asap so she doesn't lose any NI contributions.


Summary here:


http://www.turn2us.org.uk/information__resources/benefits/working_or_looking_for_work/redundancy.aspx