Redundancy - good or bad timing?

csdodd80

Hello All,

My husband's firm has been making redundancies since last year and he was advised to go for voluntary redundancy (deserting the sinking ship).
He has today had his offer and it consists of his redundancy and his notice in lieu payments which are £3344 each, with the first half tax free.

He has applied for many jobs and we are relatively pleased with the offer, BUT, at present I work part-time, and earn £866 pcm gross. This will be until mid-september when I will be leaving to go to University full-time.

Our income at present consists of the following:

Husbands Wage: £371 per week gross, less 2.3% pension

My Wage: 866.67 gross pcm

£154 per month Child Tax Credits (this is due to our income 2014-2015 being reduced when I leave for uni in Sept),

£134 per month Child Benefit for two children both female, one 17 but in college doing A-Level's , the other 11. No childcare fees

We also receive a 25% reduction on our Council Tax due to me also being a full-time evening student so CT is circa. £670 pm

Our rent is £436.00 per month, with a 3 bed house, we are social tenants.

From September I will receive my student grants and loans, but will not longer be working.

We will then receive £2264 in student grants and £2686 in student loans until the beginning of April 2015.

At present we are unsure if we are entitled to JSA if hubby takes the offer, and whether my wage at present will affect any amounts, or whether they will take into account the fact I will be studying.

None of the calculators allow for Full Time Student calculations and we really are unsure what to do.
As I say, his company are a sinking ship and he has been fortunate that they have allowed him to go for Voluntary, and this is solely due to his commitment and his good service. A few months from now, he could be getting Statutory Redundancy, so we need to look at this as a gift horse, but we don't know if this is good or bad timing for us financially. We have no other savings so the payment will help pay off the minimal debts we have (approx. £1500).

Please can someone offer their thoughts on what decision to make?

Many Thanks,

Col

Mrs_Soup

He can get contributory JSA after taking voluntary redundancy from the word go I think. I know I did but my whole payment was redudnacy with none of it designated as PILON.

csdodd80

Thanks for the reply.

We have looked into it and he can get Contributory JSA, however I work 1 hour a week over the limit for Income Based JSA! Typical! At present I earn too much too but my income overall for 14/15 is going to be half for 13/14, however I don't think the JSA people will consider that, because it is still 10 weeks until I leave employment for Uni.

Either way the offer has been accepted today. My hubby has decided if he can't find employment he is going to return to college to retrain.

Scary stuff all of this!

Many Thanks again,

Colleen