Redundancy questions

randombetas

Hi my wife is being made redundant on December the 20th from her job in Royal Mail.

She's getting a Pilon payment for 3 months to cover her till the site closes in February we're just wondering what to do with regards to universal credit (we're aware we need to report it on the online portal) and some form of help with the cost of living as we'll only be on my wages from February and we're not sure what her redundancy package will be (we think it's 9 months full pay). 

Also can she claim jsa from the December or will she have to wait till February? 

We're unsure how that will affect our universal credit payments, 

8dayweek

Is the PILON being paid in one lump sum? When is the redundancy pay expected?

PILON is treated as earnings in the assessment period in which it’s received in the normal way - however if it’s all paid as one lump sum you MAY find you have Surplus Earnings applied. 

If the employment has ended officially as of 20th, then this would just need to be updated under the Work & Earnings section using the Employment end date as the date of change. There is a question within this section about whether any further Wages or pay from your prior Employer is expected. 

Redundancy is Capital / Savings, so this would need to be updated under the Savings, Capital and Investments section when received. If this takes your total Capital over £6k (but below £16k) there would be £4.35 deducted for each £250 (or part thereof) above above £6k. If the Redundancy takes your total Capital over £16k then UC Entitlement would cease and you can reclaim once again when your Capital drops below £16k. 

randombetas

Thanks for the fast response, now she might be paid all of it in one go so just over 21k so I think we'll obviously let uc know as we won't be able to get any universal credit but want to stay on the system as we're hoping to use her money to put a deposit on a house (once she's found a new job) 

So pilon is just over 4k 
Redundancy is 18k

Do t think we'd get a mortgage on just my wages so will definitely need to wait till she's in paid employment again. 

Also does anyone know if she'll be able claim job seekers if she has all that capital? 

Can said money be lent to family members to avoid having too much capital in her bank? 

Spoonie_Turtle

randombetas said:

So pilon is just over 4k 
Redundancy is 18k

…

1.  Also does anyone know if she'll be able claim job seekers if she has all that capital? 

2.  Can said money be lent to family members to avoid having too much capital in her bank? 

1.  Yes, capital is not taken into account for JSA. 
She may just need to check the timing, whether she can claim straight away or whether there's anything weird about waiting until the notice period she would have had without the PILON expires first.  (I'm not very conversant with JSA so didn't want to just say 'yes' in case it's not that straightforward immediately.)

2.  No, that would be classed as deliberately depriving yourselves of capital and you'll be treated as if you still have it.  Only repayment of any debts would be allowed.