Benefit entitlement following (chosen) redundancy

[starfish4]

DH's work are offering redundancy and asking for employees to take it through choice initially in the hope they don't have to issue compulsory redundancies.

As well as working fulltime, DH is also doing a degree connected with work he's done in the past. In 12/15 months time he wants to change his career path following this, but has also done care home and bar work so has a few paths to explore if he can't get a similar job.

Just wondering what benefits we'd be entitled to if he can't get a job though. I work 16.5 hours a week (earning approx. £575pm), we have one 13 year old child and own our own home. Obviously we'd have redundancy money for a while, but trying to work out finances before deciding.

www.redundancyexpert.co.uk/claim-benefits-volunteered-redundancy.html
forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2801778
Have a look here. Others will be along soon to help no doubt.

www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/voluntary-redundancy-what-are-my-rights/

Voluntary redundancy will be treated like normal redundancy, so your husband will be able to claim JSA. He will definitely be able to claim contributory JSA for 6 months (this is not means-tested). If you (as a couple) don't have savings over £16k he should also be able to apply for income-based JSA, and he should get this after the 6 months of contributory JSA has run out, but he should apply for both at the same time as he might be able to get some ibJSA from the beginning (in addition to cJSA) to help with mortgage interest payments.

You will probably be able to apply for Child Tax Credits as well. And you might be entitled to a Council Tax Reduction.

If you want to do the sums, you could use an online benefits calculator such as www.entitledto.co.uk. You could also visit or contact CAB and ask for a benefits check.

I went to see about JSA when I was made redundant. I think it's important to realise DH would be subject to the same strictures as everyone else - ie actively seeking employment, sending out x number of applications per week, to get his benefit. These jobs wouldn't be 'jobs DH would like' or even 'jobs at DH's current level' - the advisor basically said I would be expected to apply for anything and everything until I got any kind of work.

I didn't claim as my end goal was starting my own business, not sending out 30 CVs a week to get a job as an entry level administrator (absolutely no disrespect to anyone in that role, but at that time I had 20+ years of experience in my field).

I claimed cJSA for 6 months (after being made redundant) and wasn't forced to apply for jobs I didn't want.

Going to the job centre is hardly a barrel of laughs but there was no way I was going to be intimidated out of claiming a benefit I was entitled to. I've worked and paid NI all my life, so I earned it.

(Well, not exactly "all my life" - all my adult life!)

That's totally fair enough Emma, but it wasn't my experience.

Lonny Yes I've heard mixed reports of the job centre - I do think I was lucky! But I was also quite assertive about telling them what I'd been applying for and what kind of job I wanted. I did get told I should be doing more a few times but they never threatened to sanction me or anything. If they had I probably would have just stopped my claim.

Thanks so much for your replies. Have gone onto entitled.com which is showing we would get more than I thought initially, so with redundancy money we can certainly cope for quite a while. DH is the sort who would give most things a go, but luckily he's work in three different fields, and if he gets his degree that'll really open things up for him in something he loves. I'm about to look at the links as well.

DH is a worker, but won't let any negativity put him off claiming anything that's due as he knows we have to pay the bills.

Don't forget that any of the redundancy payout you don't immediately spend (on settling debts for eg) will be considered as savings by the DWP, so may effect the amount of benefits your DP is entitled to.

^ this! We paid off debt but were then told that it was considered " deprivation of capital" - and so we couldn't claim any support