What happens if you rent privately and get fired???

Reala

Hi there,

Just to let you know the prediciment I am in. I have recently taken out a short term lease on a flat (£440 a month) and am on a salary of £15,000 which is all well and good. However one of the managers announced today that a couple of people may be let go at the end of the week because of poor sales.

My question is, what is that happens and I get 'let go', I will have no income and obviously have a contract for this place for the next 4 months =( Although I am sure I will get another job, it takes 3-4 weeks for applications / interviews, etc. Do you guys have any ideas as to how on Earth I am going to keep my head above water if this happens!!!

Honestly I am quite scared as never really been out of work, left school at 18 and have been working up until now (22). If anyone has some advice I would really appriciate it =(

lucia15

You could claim housing and council tax benefit but the housing benefit would be restricted to the single room rent of £43 per week (i know, its rubbish). also, depends if you are fired or made redundant. if fired, you will be sanctioned from claiming jsa (but could still claim HB and CTB based on having nil income). if made redundant, you should claim jsa contributions based.

tanith

To be honest I would already be looking for another job just in case... but you would of course be able to apply for benefit subject to some conditions..

Hapless_2

Officially you should inform your landlord, as his mortgage and insurance may only cover him if his tenants were employed. There may be a clause in the tenancy which requests you to do this.
It can take several weeks for any form of benefit to come through too.

PasturesNew

As a backup plan, start shoving your CV out through agencies, just in case. And who knows, you might even find a better job!

This would help because if you do find yourself in this predicament you would already be 2 weeks or so down the CV/finding/applying/being contacted for interview route, so you'd be buying yourself time there.

Agencies in your local area will be different, but I find http://www.reed.co.uk is a good generic one as well as the actual Jobcentre site that lists every job in the Job Centre http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk

In the event of being laid off, my plan of action would be:
1] Phone up the Job Centre and make an appointment immediately. This is because any claim will be started from the date you first contact them, so don't lose a day by putting it off.
2] Have my CV ready/prepared (maybe even sent out already)
3] Compile a list (you can do this now) of all job agencies in your area - check out their websites and see if they have the type of jobs you are looking for at the rate of pay you need/want. Start sending your CV out to these telling them you want to be a temp.

Good luck!

Reala

As I expected really, kinda screwed if I get fired =(

I have been handing CV's out, but I don't think I'll match my current income in a hurry, makes me mad really as I got promoted like 6 weeks ago, so thought I was safe and took a new place on and then they pull this!!!

Hopefully just the boss being a 'b*tch' and trying to motivate us into working harder, but kinda convinced otherwise =( Dunno, I just think if I loose my job I've got 4 weeks before I can't pay rent and then what happens!? I won't have any money for anything =S

suelees1

lucia15 wrote: »

You could claim housing and council tax benefit but the housing benefit would be restricted to the single room rent of £43 per week

In these types of circumstances Housing Benefit's not normally restricted for the first 13 weeks if you could afford the rent when you took on the tenancy. I'm not 100% sure about this for under 25's but hopefully someone from the LA HB dept will come on and verify.

lucia15

suelees1 wrote: »

In these types of circumstances Housing Benefit's not normally restricted for the first 13 weeks if you could afford the rent when you took on the tenancy. I'm not 100% sure about this for under 25's but hopefully someone from the LA HB dept will come on and verify.

I am a Housing Benefits Assessor. This is correct, but we would need to see evidence that the rent has been paid, eg, rent book, letter from landlord. If the customer does not want his landlord to know he is claiming benefit, he can have it paid directly to himself as long as he is no more than 8 weeks in arrears.

seven-day-weekend

You can also apply for Jobseekers' Allowance if you are unemployed and looking for work.