Help my Husbands lost his job!

cherryfield

My DH went to work yesterday and got called into the office at the end of the day, he was given a letter saying he was no longer needed as of that moment due to restructure (there has been no mention of this before now)and the state of the country! He's worked there for 11 months and had not been given his contract even after his 3 month trial.
What I really want to know is what do I now? Can he claim Job Seekers Allowance now or does he have to wait? Is it possible we may have grounds for some sort of unfair dismissal claim?
We rent our house from a Housing association which we pay weekly, and after monday we will have no more money coming in other than tax credits and child benefit. We have 2 young children and obviously this is all a huge worry. We have quite large debts which we have been struggling to pay for the past year anyway. Would this be a good time to look at bancruptcy or an IVA or would this effect his chances of getting another job?? If I ring our creditors, and the Housing Association do you think they will be helpful? I've never ever been in this situation before and just have know Idea what to do. I'm trying to be strong for DH as he is devastated and saying he's let us down and is useless.
TIA

seven-day-weekend

I'm so sorry to hear of your hjusband's dilemma and as you say your job is to support him as much as possible until he gets another job.

He can apply for Jobseeker's Allowance as he has not been sacked for misconduct or given up his job voluntarily and also he can apply for Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit for the rent. These are means-tested (unless it's contibutions-based JSA) but from what you have said you don't have much income anyway so should not be a problem.

Do this as soon as you can.

Post on the Debt-Free Wannabee board for advice about your debts and budgeting, and also bakruptcy although I don't think this is necessary. They are full of wonderful advice and totally non-judgemental.
Best of luck and hope this helps!

chuckles1066

cherryfield wrote: »

What I really want to know is what do I now? Can he claim Job Seekers Allowance now or does he have to wait? Is it possible we may have grounds for some sort of unfair dismissal claim?

No; less than 12 months service and you have zero employment rights with regard to things like unfair dismissal.

It was one of the things the UK Government opted out of when signing the Maastricht Treaty.

Makes you proud to be British eh? :mad:

Conor_3

OK...

FIRSTLY MAKE SURE THAT HE IS PAID A WEEK OR WHATEVER HIS CONTRACT SAYS IS THE NOTICE PERIOD "IN LIEU OF NOTICE". They have to give him a weeks notice or what the contract says is the notice period so even if they tell him his job is finished as of that moment, they have to pay him that notice even though he doesn't work the notice period. Also make sure that any outstanding holiday pay is also paid. That should give you another week or two money but these are the two things employers try to get out of paying when they terminate employment on the spot.

JSA. He can claim Contributions Based JSA if he's got enough NI contributions and he'll get something. If he hasn't enough contributions (based on previous 2 financial years) then he can claim income based.

Tax Credits: Sadly you need to inform them he's not working and if you aren't they'll stop.

GOOD NEWS: You rent. So you can claim HB and CTB.

So your income is going to be:
Child Benefit.
JSA which will work out around £160 a week mark.
Housing Benefit which will be paid to the HA.
Council Tax Benefit which you won't see.

So to do the shopping and pay the bills, you've whatever JSA and CB you get. The good news is that your rent should fall to a few quid a week at most.

cherryfield

Thanks for all your advice, I've rung the Tax credits, but they cannot do anything till he gets his p45. He's been given 2.5 days pay in Lieu of notice to be paid next week, but that will cover next weeks rent and thats it, so severe finacial times ahead by the sound of things.
I'm off to the debt free board, maybe this is our chance to finally become free off the debts that hold us back.
Thanks Again.

Conor_3

cherryfield wrote: »

He's been given 2.5 days pay in Lieu of notice to be paid next week,

So he was told to leave and they're going to pay 2.5 days from then as payment in liue of notice?
I take it he was working fulltime? If so that is illegal as the statutory minimum notice under UK Employment Law is ONE WEEK. If he only worked 2.5 days per week then it'd be legal. Notice is taken from the point it is given, not backdated to the beginning of that week. Fight for it. Stuff them.

dmg24

Conor wrote: »

OK...

Tax Credits: Sadly you need to inform them he's not working and if you aren't they'll stop.

...

So your income is going to be:
Child Benefit.
JSA which will work out around £160 a week mark.
Housing Benefit which will be paid to the HA.
Council Tax Benefit which you won't see.

You will still receive Child Tax Credits.

JSA (couples rate) is £92.80 a week, not £160!

LittleVoice

JSA will kick in after the expiry of the paid notice period, not from actual termination date.

Conor_3

dmg24 wrote: »

JSA (couples rate) is £92.80 a week, not £160!

But they also have kids..

Scarlett1

Conor wrote: »

But they also have kids..

JSA/IS dont pay the child element, child tax credit has to be claimed for that