Voluntary Redundancy, self employment + benefits

[emmajlh]

hi,

I'm taking VR from the NHS in October.

I'm planning on becoming self employed at this point. I met with a careers consultant last week who informed me that for 26 weeks i'd be entitled to claim £52 per week job seekers allowance until my income was 'at a certain level'. I found this very surprising and haven't yet clarified it with the relevant government agency but wondered what other people thought of this?

Is there any other benefits i'd be eligible for?

Sounds wrong, you have to be actively looking for work to get JSA, and I'm not sure building up a self employed business would count. It also depends how they view voluntary redundancy as usually you don't get anything if you have made yourself unemployed. You could look here:

www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Employedorlookingforwork/DG_10018757

I would say the only way to really know is to ring and ask.