Partner just been made redundent

waveydave79

My partner just worked for a large supermarket chain which has just gone into administration. She has been working there for the past 3 years. We went into a meeting to be told that she had no job anymore, they said that redundency payout is unlikely.

We originally had alot of problems getting gem into work as she has borderline learning difficulties. Gem got the job with a company called remploy which help people like her into work, we have never been able to claim any benefits before she worked as she was told she didnt have enough NI contributions. Trying to claim for DLA is a nightmare and shes not officially classed as disabled its a social axienty.

Basically I m not sure where we stand in relation to getting benefits, such as JSA, she her wageslips she has hardly paid any tax over the 3 years as she worked a 16 hour week and didnt earn enough. So are we in the same situation again ?

I earn 20K a year and took a look on the calculator for what I was entitled to under WTC, after entering all the numbers it said - nothing. I have a mortage to pay after all the bills it gonna leave for very little money. We do not have any kids.

We will be going down to the local jobshop next week to confirm if we are entitled to anything, Gem wants to get back into work as quick as possible, apart from this everything seems very overwhelming.

Is there anything else we can do ?

Conor_3

JSA comes as two forms.

First is Contributions based. This is based on the previous two years NI contributions which she'll have. It doesn't last though because once you've been claiming a year, you end up with insufficient NI contributions so the claim is closed.

Second is Income based. This is based on the amount the household have coming in.

OK so which to claim? Contributions based is claimed when the circumstances are like yours - one partner working. If you try to claim income based, your wages will go against it. So you need to do a Contributions based claim - that way your income doesn't go against her getting a payout.

The downside is that because the redundancy situation with Kwik-Save is in limbo ATM, it may take a while to sort out and before she gets some money.

On the plus side, the Job Centre has many schemes to help the disadvantaged into work so pester them. Because she has difficulties she should be able to waive the waiting time to qualify for New Deal.

£20k/year is about £15k takehome or roughly £300 a week - I can see why the WTC is zero.

OTOH, £300 a week is plenty to live on so post a SOA in the Debt Free Wannabee forum and see if people can help reduce your outgoings.

waveydave79

regarding the JSA i thought that we would only be able to get the contribution based one also.

The mortage is totally in my name and to be honest we pay 266 /month which isnt alot. I dont have any major outstanding debts or loans. Total direct debits is about 550 / month, food and travel costs about 350 so it leaves enough... Take home pay for me a month is about 1200 so its about 300 a week which is enough to get by.

It was the jobcentre that reffered gem to Remploy in the first place as she had a very helpful advisor so we are going to get onto them first thing next week.

Didnt take much guessing it was kwick save, right on the money there. The way they treated her was totally wrong. 7 weeks without pay. In the meeting yesterday they said its unlikely there is going to be a payout, however something was said about the DTI have to pay out as she has been made redundent, dont know how much truth there is in that.

Thanks for advise so far.

Conor_3

No problem. The Govt have a fund to pay out in such cases. It's nowhere near what you'd get from an employer though but at least it's better than nothing.

Good luck anyway. Still post the SOA on the Debt Free Wannabee forum. There may be some savings/way to reduce costs you didn't realise.