to claim JSA when i have been made redundant?

[lifeafterredundancy]

Background:
worked at same company 10 years - being made redundant at end of july.
getting a £25K redundancy package.

DH works but we need both incomes to sustain a moderate standard of living.

I want to claim JSA while i am looking for work. (The work i do is mostly based in London and I live a £40 train fare away so assuming i get interviews the train fare alone will cost me a pretty penny)

I mentioned this to a friend who thought it was a disgrace as i have a redundancy package to see me through. It's got me wondering. On one hand I think that if i am eligible (a whole other question) then why shouldn't I claim as I have been paying into the system for 15 years and I will be an active job seeker, but I also see my friend's point that I don't need the JSA as I have my redundancy to pay for train fares/petrol etc to get to interviews.

So, I've got my hard hat on! Am I being Unreasonable to claim JSA??

also vj do you have a link to that stuff about voluntary contributions? I spent a few years gallivanting around and am heading off on maternity leave soon so am probably down some contributions.

If your entitled to it you should claim it. It's not like your wealthy, that redundancy will not last long. With JSA they will make you take any job going though, you can't be picky.

Its here:

www.hmrc.gov.uk/ni/volcontr/basics.htm

Krumbum: £25k should last a long time, especially with a partner who is earning as well. We lived off £25k last year as a family. More importantly the JC don't make you take any job going. You can't be picky, but you can say what you want or are qualified for, and if its reasonable then you can limit yourself to that. Childcare is also counted as a barrier to finding work so you can limit what hours you can do because of childcare, so long as you can work at least 16 hours a week.

Have you looked at tax credits lifeafterredundancy? JSA is taxable so is counted as income for other benefits like Tax credits, so you may not actually be gaining much money by claiming it. You also can't get

I got loads of help

I had a brilliant advisor

I don't understand why your friend has such a strange attitude. I'm known for being a bit on the right but JSA is there exactly for people in your situation. You have been made redundant through no fault of your own and the state can & should provide temporary support for you whilst you look for alternative work.

Maybe she's jealous for some perverse reason?

I never saw the same person more than once in 4 months. The person I knew best was the security guard as he had to let me in the lift each time!

I saw the same person each time for the first 12 weeks then I got a dedicated personal advisor who went through aims and qualifications etc with me. As soon as he realised I wanted to be self employed he found appropriate courses, set me up with a mentoring scheme, pointed me in the direction of grants etc.

He even found a job for me!

Where the whole process fell down was when my paperwork left his desk and I ended up having to provide the same paperwork 4 times. That was a central admin issue though.

you should put in a claim for jsa. i think this allows your n.i. to be paid while you look for work. if you have more than £16k in savings it will affect other benefits. fill in the forms online, they will call you back for an interview.

as i've said before, i did not find the staff useful at the jobcentre, but you need to go along to get your money.

Just to clarify, everyone can claim six months' JSA regardless of how much money they have (including redundancy money) if they have been in work and paid their NI contributions. After six months, JSA is means-tested.

FarSide Does that mean DS and his friends did not get it because they were fresh out of uni then? DS got £25 per week for 6 months, his closest friend got nothing because their "savings", which parents had put asidefor them in lieu of paying their tuition fees, were counted but the student loans, which hugely outweighed them, were not.

Fifty- they would have got income based jsa not contribution based. Presumably your DS had some income which was offset against his jsa meaning he got a reduced amount. And his friend would have been expected to live off his savings. The dwp doesn't care what the money is intended for :)

YANBU - as long as you're eligible, you should, because it keeps up your NI contributions.

Fifty - yes, I think you need to have been paying NI contributions for two years (?) in order to qualify for contributions based JSA, which is NOT means tested and which you get for six months. Plus what Erik said.

Ds got made redundant in march with a 5 figure sum. He claimed jsa as he had a right to. Also to claim on mortgage protection insurance you have to show you are receiving JSA. Thankfully he has just got a job and only claimed one months mortgage protection.