Benefits

[ScaredAboutTheFuture]

I am hoping for some advise.

DH is being made redundant shortly. He will get a package of £43,000.

Will he be able to claim JSA with that amount of payout.

Many thanks

He won't, it goes over the threshold for savings. And to be honest, why should he? JSA is for people in need. If you have £43k, you're not in need.

No , he will be eligible for 6 months as long as he has paid enough ni contributions. After that it becomes income based , so if you are earning too , he would not be.

This page might be useful, OP. So sorry your husband's been made redundant.

He can claim contribution based jsa for 6 months if he has paid enough ni contributions

6 months of JSA if he has enough NI contributions.

Ok, I was wrong about the savings thing :) but my other comment still stands, sorry!

It seems if he's made NI contributions he'll be eligible.

Many thanks.

I thought he could claim contributory based JSA for 6 months which is non-means tested.

Is that not the case?

Yes that's correct .

crossed posts!

If he has continually paid class 1 NI contributions for the last two financial years then in theory yes, and, it will reset the two years at the date it stops.

Not sure what happens with universal credit (depends on area if it'll be that or not), or if you are in work.

Just to get my head around this complete nightmare.

He can claim the JSA for 6 months and it won't be reduced by the amount of his payout. However after the 6 months it will go onto the income based JSA which will take into account my salary.

I earn £13,000 per year

It is likely that there will not be any of the payout left after 6 months anyway.

(Must be continually for two years with no breaks at all)

Sorry if I'm not being clear!

You plan to spend 43k in 6 months ?!

I'm pretty sure he can't claim at all after the 6 months as you are employed.

How on Earth will you spend £43k in 6 months! You'd better be very careful with that because if you're found to have willfully deprived yourself of capital then you won't get any benefits after that 6 months.

With all due respect, how can you spend over £40k in 6 months. Is there a bigger picture here as that would last us, for instance, 18 months based on current lifestyle. If DH lost his job we'd have to cut back and make that last longer until a new job was found.

He will need to prove what he spent the money on, bank statements/receipts he can't just spend it and expect to claim benefits in six months time. They're really strict about what it can be spent on and by how much without it being classed as deliberate deprivation - I knew someone who bought an electronic wheelchair and there were arguments about that expenditure not being necessary.

X-posts all over the place!

The 13,000 a year I think pushes you over the limit for couples anyway (not 100% on that but I think so).

The vast majority of the 43k will be tax free - do you really spend about £7k a month? Maybe we can help you with cutting expenditure too?

Easy to spend it. To make a lump sum payment to the mortgage would be wise therefore reducing their debt

Definitely it would be sensible to do that but for some reason it didn't sound like that was the plan. I might be wrong.

They'd also need to check the rules on doing that if they have to claim income based benefits after the 6 months in case it's regarded as depriving of income.

I'm not sure that you're allowed to repay debt before it is due (i.e. repay a chunk of mortgage early) without falling foul of the 'wilfully deprived' rules. I thought you couldn't do that. Does anyone else know the rules on this?

Crossed post!

You need to demonstrate that you have not deprived yourself of income in order to claim benefits.