JSA - Signing off as I have funds

paulr62

Please help me !! I have been my own boss for 35 years but I eventually took a job as I got defrauded and lost my business. I worked for 10 months at £50k per annum for an employer but was made redundant due to issues with the company, resulting in them not being able to fund my wages. I did take out a redundancy insurance (wife's idea) but I have been told that I need to prove that I am now out of work and to "sign on". This I did and I am now claiming under the JSA umbrella - I say claiming, but due to my savings, I am not entitled to any payments, only NI credits. The JSA have stated that after a certain time period, they have told me that I have to accept any job, no matter what the salary.
My question is that am I able to "sign on" but end my claim with JSA as I am due to get £2700 per month from the redundancy insurance. If I took a job, this would end.

silvercar

The JSA have stated that after a certain time period, they have told me that I have to accept any job,

If you don't accept any job they may sanction you, which would mean they would stop your benefit - no hardship as you don't seem to be receiving any benefit.

paulr62

I called the redundancy insurance with this issue and they replied in an email as follows:

"Irrespective of the reason why his JSA would stop, we would still require the client to be registered as unemployed, meaning that he would still need to sign on at the job centre. We may require more information from the client each month in regards to job search, such as a bank statement to prove that claimant is still unemployed and not receiving any income. So client would still be able to claim benefit but more information could be required."

My reply - Thank you for your reply but I am struggling to make sense of the email below. There is now no alternative to JSA, there used to be unemplyment benefit but this has ceased, it is now called JSA. So how can it be irrespective of the reason why JSA is stopped, because if it is stopped and there is no other option, I simply cannot sign on as it would have to be under the JSA umbrella.

Their reply was:
You can still sign on even if you don’t receive JSA. Some people are not entitled to it but still need sign on and go through the same procedure every 2 weeks.

SO CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW CAN I SIGN ON EVERY 2 WEEKS WITHOUT SEEKING JSA?

paulr62

Thank you for your reply, but I still need to prove that I am signing on apparently to claim my redundancy insurance

paulr62

If they stop my benefit, the redundancy insurance may not pay out

nannytone_2

isnt the redundancy insurance to cover you until you find work and not to provide an alternative to working?

jobbingmusician

Also - did anyone explain to you about the 2 different types of JSA? Why aren't you claiming contributions based JSA, which does not get affected by the amount of money in your bank account?

Caz3121

jobbingmusician wrote: »

Also - did anyone explain to you about the 2 different types of JSA? Why aren't you claiming contributions based JSA, which does not get affected by the amount of money in your bank account?

I assume because the OP was self employed, they would not have the 2 years class 1 contributions required

elsien

My insurance was the same - I had to be signed on to claim it. However if you expect to get a job fairly quickly it's not difficult to keep the job centre happy. I was told that after 3 months I would need to apply to any job going, but if you put on your CV that you were in a higher position and earning 50k then the minimum wage jobs won't look at you anyway. It's worth signing on to get the insurance pay out.

However as previous posters have said, unless you don't have enough NI contributions due to being self employed, then you should get paid for the first 6 months regardless of savings.

TELLIT01

nannytone wrote: »

isnt the redundancy insurance to cover you until you find work and not to provide an alternative to working?

It is precisely that, which is why the insurer wants to be certain that any claimant of redundancy insurance is actively seeking work. It's there as a safety belt, not an alternative to work.
I can see why the OP would be miffed if he had to take a job at minimum wage and lose out on £2700 per month, but them's the rules.
I'm not sure how the rules around jobsearch etc apply to a Contributions based claim. I'm not sure either whether or not the OP would have an entitlement to Conts based JSA. That would be largely dependent on the NI contribution type when self employed.

silvercar

elsien wrote: »

My insurance was the same - I had to be signed on to claim it. However if you expect to get a job fairly quickly it's not difficult to keep the job centre happy. I was told that after 3 months I would need to apply to any job going, but if you put on your CV that you were in a higher position and earning 50k then the minimum wage jobs won't look at you anyway. It's worth signing on to get the insurance pay out.

However as previous posters have said, unless you don't have enough NI contributions due to being self employed, then you should get paid for the first 6 months regardless of savings.

Very true. No company is going to train you up, knowing that you are only time filling.